The thin blue line in Annapolis
Gov. Martin O'Malley (far left), State Sen. Paul Pinsky (middle) and Environment Maryland director Brad Heavner (right), all supporters of the Global Warming Solutions Act, at an event last April promoting efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
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Climate change activists have drawn a thin blue line across Main Street in Annapolis.
The point of their chalky protest this morning: to show how high waters might rise if global warming melted the Greenland ice sheet, driving up sea levels by 20 feet. Dozens of shops and restaurants would be flooded in the state capital.
The members of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Environment Maryland and Sierra Club are trying to convince the General Assembly to change an amendment that they said will "gut" legislation designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions from businesses in the state by 25 percent by 2020. The amendment, successfully introduced by Sen. Nathaniel Exum of Prince George's County on Thursday, would require legislative approval each time state environmental agency acts to issue regulations. This extra requirement could now be modified as the bill heads to the House, to allow the Maryland Department of the Environment more leeway to issue pollution control rules.
“We were demonstrating to passersby how high the water would come if we don’t get our act together on global warming," said Brad Heavner, director of Environment Maryland. "The House has the opportunty to make Maryland a leader, or they could drop the ball like the Senate did."
The Maryland League of Conservation voters last week identified the Exum amendment as one of three "poison pills" sought by business lobbyists that would "completely undermine the bill's intent." Gov. O'Malley's administration said the amendment would roll back the existing authority of the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Supporters of the amendment describe it as sensible legislative oversight over the MDE, to make sure it doesn't impose overly aggressive regulations that hurt businesses and cost the state jobs.
I report on the environment and Chesapeake Bay. A native of West Virginia, I have focused mainly on Maryland's environment since moving here in 1983. Along the way, I've crewed aboard a skipjack in the bay, canoed under city streets up the Jones Fall from the Inner Harbor, and gone deep underground in a western Maryland coal mine. Recently, I have been covering the growth and development transforming the landscape. I love seafood, rambles in the country and good stories. I hope to share some here.
Comments
This whole thing that O'Malley is doing is for personal PR. He has no idea of how to accomplish these goals, how much it will cost, because ultimately he won't have to deal with it. But when makes a claim for the White House he can say look at what I did? While the people in MD are being taxed more than any other State.
Posted by: Dunn | March 25, 2008 8:37 AM
At least O'Malley is taking action, which is more than I can say about other Governors. Maryland will be seriously affected by sea level rise. Imagine the rise in taxes when flood damage and other impacts are felt around the state!
Posted by: Preston | March 25, 2008 10:50 AM
A large percentage of the sea level rise around the Chesapeake Bay is due to geological subsidance in the Earth's crust since the last ice age. It is not due to global warming, and cannot be fixed by legislation. Keep this in mind if your job is threatened by the Global Warming "Solutions" Act.
Posted by: An Engineer | March 27, 2008 11:29 AM
And how high was the water level in Annapolis a thousand years ago when the climate was naturally substantially warmer than it is today and the Vikings were farming in Greenland? Aren't we just returning to the normal temperatures of the past after the mini-ice age that began around 1400?
Posted by: Diane C. Russell | March 28, 2008 9:05 AM