Jan 16 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Pamela Wood The Capital, Annapolis, Md.


Maryland's top environmental official urged lawmakers yesterday to pass a bill that will set greenhouse gas reduction targets, as the administration inches closer to a compromise with opponents to the measure.

As she unveiled the final report of a state Commission on Climate Change, Environment Secretary Shari T. Wilson told members of a state Senate committee in Annapolis that putting the reductions into state law will help move actions forward.

"By putting in place a reduction target, it will increase our sense of urgency," Ms. Wilson told members of the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee.

The commission recommends cutting Maryland's greenhouse gases by 25 to 50 percent between now and 2020.

Bills mandating those reductions have failed in the past two years, largely due to opposition from union and business groups. They've said the mandatory reductions might hurt businesses that can't afford pollution upgrades or that can't do business with reduced emissions.

But administration and environmental officials have indicated they're close to a compromise with unions and business officials that will allow the bill to pass.

Ms. Wilson noted that producing energy and transportation are far larger sources of greenhouse gases than manufacturing.

State Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George's, who has sponsored climate change legislation, noted it's been difficult to get the bills through Annapolis.

"It's failed twice," he said. "Hopefully, this year will be the last."

According to the Maryland Department of the Environment, Marylanders could actually save up to $2 billion by taking 42 actions for reducing greenhouse gases listed in the climate change report. The actions range from conserving energy to buying local food to using switchgrass, a tall perennial grass, to make fuel.

Maryland already is reaping financial benefits from auctioning off carbon dioxide emissions credits, which started just a few months ago. Millions of dollars from the auctions will be poured into energy conservation and eventually, the carbon credit program -- called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative -- will reduce carbon emissions in Maryland and nine other eastern states.

The MDE yesterday also issued a critical report from the Advisory Committee on the Management and Protection of the State's Water Resources.

The committee found that Maryland is lacking in crucial information needed to manage the groundwater and reservoir supplies in the state. The report said $72 million needs to be spent over the next eight years to bring the state's monitoring and planning up to speed.

If the state doesn't get moving, we could face water shortages in some areas due to poor planning, warned Dr. M. Gordon Wolman of Johns Hopkins University, who was the committee's chairman.

"We're behind, significantly behind, at the present time," he told senators.

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