The politics of Earth Day
Welcome to Earth Day, when politicians get to show how green they are.
Maryland was the backdrop for an announcement by Vice President Joe Biden today that state and local governments could get $300 million in recovery act funds to convert transit and fleet vehicles to alternative fuels and other environmentally friendly technology.
Biden was joined at WMATA maintenance facility in Landover by Gov. Martin O’Malley, Sen. Ben Cardin and other officials.
But Republicans in Maryland don’t want to cede the environmental issue to Democrats.
The state Republican Party is announced that it has formed the MDGOP Commission for Environmental Solutions.
“This commission includes representatives from the Maryland General Assembly, the recycling industry, green construction, water and sewage treatment, agriculture, the power industry as well as experts from the field of natural resources,” the state party said in a release.
The commission, it said, will allow for “reason, rational thinking and science to lead the way for developing a responsible approach for saving our most precious natural resource, the Chesapeake Bay.”
But don’t expect any big spending programs such as the one announced by Biden. “The Maryland Republican Party realizes that more money is not the answer,” the release says.
OK, then. Money won’t solve environmental problems, but a commission will?
On Earth Day, perhaps anything is possible.
Comments
If the Md. GOP is so proud of their "Commission for Enviornmental Solutions" (taken from their website exactly as it appears), then why haven't they bothered to name its members?
Posted by: Dundalk Guy | April 22, 2009 1:15 PM
For goodness sake. All this hoopla la over the environment is nothing new to me. I grew up with an 11th commandment. Thou shalt not waste. Waste not, want not. Dear old Mom and Dad taught me to turn out lights when you leave the room. No trash can, stuff the paper in your pocket until you find one, etc., etc.
I even hang my cloths outside, something the liberals once chastised me over with name calling i.e., gypsy.
Today I am sick and tired of this environmental green crap being forced down my throat all in the name of Al Gore and now General Electric.
Posted by: Carole | April 22, 2009 1:36 PM
Did anyone ask Joe Biden about the mountains or trash left behind at the Inaugaration?
Posted by: Chum | April 22, 2009 2:17 PM
For Earth Day I will go out and run all my fossil fuel yard implements and use my fossil fueled leaf blower to blow them into a big pile that I will then burn with fossil fuel as a starter. Then I will go for a nice long car ride for pure pleasure and along the way praise the Lord for allowing me to live in the best damned country in the world. where I still, for now, have te freedom to do all this.
Posted by: Fed Up | April 22, 2009 3:43 PM