A U.S. Senate committee is scheduled for an historic vote on a global warming bill this week, perhaps as early as Wednesday. Environmental groups are planning a flurry of press conferences Tuesday to try to influence the vote. Meanwhile, in Maryland, Gov. Martin O’Malley’s advisory Commission on Climate Change is scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss possible steps to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emmissions. The 22-member goup, headed by state Environmental Secretary Shari T. Wilson, is looking to recommend that the state adopt laws to cut greenhouse gases by 25 percent by 2020, and then move aggressively to slash the pollutants by 90 percent by 2050, according to a draft report. To achieve these goals, the state should tighten its energy efficiency standards, strengthen building codes, require more clean energy generation, among other steps. ‘As a coastal state with extensive low-lying land on the Eastern Shore and around the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland is exceeded only by Louisiana, Florida and Delaware in the percentage of its land vulnerable to accelerated sea level rise,’ the draft report warns. On the Federal level, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday is expected to debate amendments […]