Showing posts with label Brad Heavner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brad Heavner. Show all posts
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Environmentalists Say Legislators Are "Giving the Environment the Shaft"
Environment Maryland is claiming that the General Assembly is "giving the environment the shaft this year" and that, "the Chesapeake Bay is getting thrown under the election year bus in favor of campaign contributions." Its State Director also says, "I've never seen special interests get their way so universally... Bankers, developers, truckers, utilities, and chicken companies are getting their wishes granted by our state legislature."
Following is their press release.
For Immediate Release:
March 30, 2010
Contact:
Brad Heavner, 410-227-8949
Tommy Landers, 301-442-0134
Environmentalists Are Cross at Crossover
Annapolis - Today is the crossover deadline in the Maryland General Assembly, the date by which bills must be passed out of one chamber to be guaranteed a hearing in the other chamber. In reviewing their priority bills, Environment Maryland sees little progress being made.
“Legislators are giving the environment the shaft this year,” said Brad Heavner, State Director of Environment Maryland. “The Chesapeake Bay is getting thrown under the election year bus in favor of campaign contributions.”
“I’ve never seen special interests get their way so universally,” added Heavner. “Bankers, developers, truckers, utilities, and chicken companies are getting their wishes granted by our state legislature.”
Here are the major losses and wins this year, so far, from Environment Maryland’s perspective:
Losses Are Mounting
Budget
The 2010 Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund will likely be cut significantly, with remaining funds limited to cover crops.
The Senate voted to continue diverting energy efficiency funding (RGGI funds) in FY 2012.
Program Open Space is being raided.
The Sustainable Communities Tax Credit (SB 285/HB 475) is not moving.
Both sides have passed funding restrictions for the University of Maryland Environmental Law Clinic.
Energy
HB 522 and SB 910, common-sense bills for comprehensive energy planning, are going nowhere.
A bill to help property owners afford clean energy projects (HB 1014) has been gutted.
An energy efficiency standard for televisions was killed in the House (SB 455/HB 349).
SB 558/HB 1224, which would have helped establish long-term contracts for clean energy, is dead.
Several energy efficient building bills are dead or moribund, including:
o Green building standards for state-funded buildings (SB 215/HB 1040)
o Building energy use disclosure at time of sale (SB 952/ HB 1291)
o Energy use benchmarking of public buildings (SB 713/HB 985)
A bill encouraging market expansion of biofuels (SB 569/HB 827) is being held by the Economic Matters Committee.
Chesapeake Bay
HB 1125, which passed the House, will grandfather an unknown number of development projects that will be exempt from upcoming stronger stormwater management standards.
SB 686/HB 999, which would create a dedicated source of funding via small fees on utility bills for a backlog of urban stormwater management projects, is stuck in the drawer.
SB 859/HB 953, which would ban arsenic-laden additives from chicken feed, is sitting in committee.
An amendment that would prevent oyster sanctuary expansion before 2011 was added to SB 342/HB 1191, a good bill to crack down on oyster poaching.
Other environmental bills
A bill to prevent toxic pollution from coal ash dumpsites (SB 653/HB 1467) is in the drawer in the EHEA Committee.
A bill to reduce plastic bag litter by creating a fee on single-use bags has been killed (SB 462/HB 351).
Three recycling bills have been voted down – recycling at apartment buildings (SB 156), recycling at bars and restaurants (HB 944), and increasing our recycling goals (HB 982).
Hope Remains on Some Bills
Transportation: The House today passed HB 1155 which will help make transportation spending line up with the state’s official smart growth goals.
Energy: Bills have passed both chambers to improve our net metering law, requiring utilities to pay for excess power generated by solar power or other on-site generators – SB 355 and HB 801.
Solar power: The Administration bill to accelerate the solar energy standard (SB 277/HB 471) passed out of the Senate Finance Committee.
Chesapeake Bay: The oyster poaching bill (SB 342/HB 1191) might get through with the bad amendment removed.
Budget: The House Appropriations Committee decided not to continue diverting energy efficiency funding in FY 2012. Now it’s up to the conference committee.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
A Climate Bill to be Excited About
By Brad Heavner.
Sen. Barbara Boxer has said she will unveil the Senate version of federal climate legislation on Wednesday. Will the bill be inadequate to the task at hand or the most revolutionary energy policy ever considered by Congress?
The answer is both, if you consider the task at hand to be solving global warming. But it’s important to realize that no single action – even comprehensive energy legislation passed by the U.S. Congress – is going to be enough to solve the climate crisis on its own. What we need is strong progress that creates opportunities for even more progress soon. To that task, this bill is worth our strong support, particularly if the Senate version fixes some of the biggest flaws coming over from the House.
The bill the House passed in June, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (The ACES Act), makes good and measurable progress toward a clean energy future. It gets the basic framework right, setting a price on carbon with some of the proceeds to be used to invest in transforming our energy economy. It also includes new building codes, pollution standards for heavy trucks, appliance standards, and requirements that transportation spending take into account energy and climate impacts.
And, most importantly, we’ll be able to improve on it over time. If we can show a comprehensive global warming bill to be winnable in Congress, and if voters don’t revolt and people start to see the benefits of clean energy, we will be able to come back for more soon.
If it fails, on the other hand, the story in Congress will be reinforced that global warming legislation is bad politics and you don’t want to go near it with a ten-foot pole.
Don’t get me wrong, the ACES Act has serious problems. The bill only requires a 17 percent emission reduction by 2020, and much of that could be eroded by “offsets” – actions outside of the U.S. or in sectors not covered by the cap. The bill also takes away the EPA’s authority to address emissions from our dirtiest coal-fired power plants. Those compromises were painful.
Clearly, we are running out of time to deal with global warming effectively. Some suggest that means we can’t afford to pass legislation that does anything less than promise a full solution to the problem. But the plain fact of the matter in 2009 is that a good energy bill that puts America on a path to a clean energy future may be winnable in the U.S. Congress after a tough fight. The chances of winning a bill within the next couple of years that truly delivers what the science calls for are non-existent. Let’s win this and then keep fighting from there.
Forgive me a sports analogy. The planet is like a baseball team coming to bat down five runs in the bottom of the ninth. No matter how much you might need it, it is not possible to hit a five-run homer. You’ve got to get a hit, and hope the next guy does the same, and so on. The planet needs a five-run homer right now, and the ACES Act isn’t that. But it is a very solid hit that keeps us in the ball game.
In Maryland, we passed a renewable energy standard in 2003, requiring that 7.5 percent of our electricity come from clean energy sources by 2019. That percentage was so low that we didn’t know if it would mean much at the time. But since then, we have improved the number twice, to 9.5 percent in 2007 and 20 percent in 2008.
It’s time to do the same thing on a bigger issue on a bigger scale.
If you want more detail on all of this, check out this white paper.
Brad Heavner is the State Director of Environment Maryland.
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