The Chesapeake Bay’s marshes have been called the lungs of the bay. They provide habitat for fish and waterfowl. The marshes clean polluted bay waters and slow the power of floods and storms.
That’s why the scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center are studying how to preserve marshes in face of rising sea levels prompted by climate change.
Kelly Schulz’s campaign for the Republican nomination for governor is warning its supporters that Democrats may soon be meddling in their primary.
In one letter to supporters, Schulz senior campaign advisor Doug Mayer suggested that the Democratic party has focused advertisements against more moderate players instead of fringe Republicans who would have no chance during a general election in November.
Maryland’s Senate voted unanimously Tuesday to ban Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a group of human-made chemicals that the Environmental Protection Agency says can cause harmful health effects in humans.
There appeared to be enthusiastic support for reducing Maryland’s carbon footprint at a Senate committee hearing Tuesday. But some weren’t so sure the Climate Solutions bill before them was the way to do it.
The legislative drive to legalize recreational cannabis in Maryland during this General Assembly session opened Monday with supporters of two House of Delegate bills arguing they would help right past wrongs.
Opponents, however, warned in a House committee hearing they would only lead to more trouble.
The enforcement and inspection crews at Maryland’s Department of the Environment are woefully understaffed, a situation that could lead to a Flint, Michigan, style water crisis here, state Attorney General Brian Frosh has warned.
Maryland lawmakers returned to Annapolis Wednesday to take on a number of issues, among them, the legalization of recreational cannabis. Last fall, a Goucher poll found that 60 percent of Marylanders favor legalizing marijuana.
But the House and Senate are taking sharply different approaches.
Maryland’s General Assembly will return to Annapolis for its regular session in less than a month and advocacy groups are already laying out an ambitious environmental agenda.
Much of that agenda centers on climate change. The proposals range from beefing up the requirements of Maryland’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction act to going all electric in the state’s vehicle fleet and changing building codes to require all electric buildings.
Delegate Kumar Barve, the Montgomery County Democrat who chairs the House Environment and Transportation Committee told a virtual gathering of environmental groups this week the goal is to “electrify everything.”
The reason, he said, is very simple.
“First of all, we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground where they can’t harm us.”
Mike Miller, who presided over the Maryland Senate longer than any other state senate president in the nation, has resigned from the Senate, citing health reasons.
Miller, 78, presided over the Senate for 33 years, longer than some Senators have been alive.
