LegislationMaryland's Global Warming Solutions Act
The Maryland League of Conservation Voters is encouraging businesses (and individuals) to support this legislation. For more information on the League's efforts contact Dawn Stoltzfus at 410-280-9855 x203 or dstoltzfus@mdlcv.org. Below is a resolution the League encourages businesses to sign and forward to their delegates.
Resolution for Global Warming Solutions
Whereas,
- Global warming pollution threatens to endanger the public health and welfare of the people of Maryland;
- With 3,100 miles of tidal shoreline, Maryland is particularly vulnerable to global warming;
- Some insurance providers have stopped issuing policies for coastal Maryland for fear of increasingly severe weather, such as hurricanes;
- As climate change impacts grow more severe with warming of the earth, the state of Maryland will be forced to spend great amounts of public funds on levees, bridges and other mitigation efforts.
And Whereas,
- The state has technology and ingenuity to reduce the threat of global warming through its own actions and by inspiring other states and federal action;
- Many measures which reduce our impact on the climate bring co-benefits of reducing other pollutants, encouraging conservation, and saving consumers money, and;
- Global warming solutions may be the key that opens the door to the new economy!
New jobs will be created. A study by Baltimore-based International Center for Sustainable Development which was funded by the state Department of Business and Economic Development, found that clean energy industries could generate between 144,000 to 326,000 jobs over the next 20 years, contributing $5.7 billion in wages and salaries to Maryland citizens and boosting state and local tax revenues by $973 million.
Resolved:
We strongly encourage the Maryland General Assembly at the state level and Congress at the federal level to make a firm commitment to science-based reductions in global warming pollution: at least 25 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050, the targets recommended by the Maryland Commission on Climate Change in its November 2007 interim report.
Name of Organization:________________________________________________________________
Contact Name:________________________________________________________________________
Phone:________________________________________________________________________________
E-mail:________________________________________________________________________________
Address:______________________________________________________________________________
Signature/Date:_______________________________________________________________________
- (Optional) Please list my organization as a member of the Alliance for Global Warming Solutions.
Anne Arundel County SMART Fund Legislation
About the legislation, from the Anne Arundel County website:
Bill No. 76-07
(As Amended) (Hearing Concluded) (Eligible for Vote)
Introduced by: Mr. Dillon, Chairman (by request of the County Executive)
An Ordinance concerning: Stormwater Management and Restoration of Tributaries Fund (“SMART Fund”) and Stormwater Management Charge – For the purpose of creating the Anne Arundel County Stormwater Management and Restoration of Tributaries Fund (“SMART Fund”) as a special, nonlapsing fund into which revenues from the system of stormwater management charges authorized by State law shall be paid and from which appropriations to implement stormwater management programs shall be made; providing for the purposes and excluding certain uses of the Fund; providing that the Fund shall not be the exclusive source of funds used to pay for stormwater management programs; repealing and replacing the existing storm drainage fee with a stormwater management charge based on the addition of impervious surface and imposed on the issuance of certain grading and building permits; defining certain terms; providing for the imposition, nature, disposition of revenues, rate and payment, and scope of the stormwater management charge; granting a credit for green roofs; providing for the applicability of the new charge; and generally relating to the funding of stormwater management programs.
Read Baltimore Examiner story on the legislation
Read The Capital story on the legislation
A message from Anne Arundel County Councilman Josh Cohen:
Here are the key points of the amendment to the SMART fund bill that Ron Dillon, Jamie Benoit and I are introducing Monday night, Nov. 19.
- All improved residential properties pay a flat rate of $30/year.
Comparison: Residential Water and Sewer fee is $491/year; Solid Waste fee is $275/year.- All commercial, institutional and industrial properties shall pay $30 per Equivalent Runoff Unit, which is 2,500 square feet of impervious surface.
Example: a property with 1 acre (43,560 sq. ft. = 18 ERU) of impervious surface would pay $540 per year.- Cap: The fee shall not exceed $25,000 per property per year.
- Annapolis: City of Annapolis properties are excluded (Annapolis already has a storm water utility in place for several years now.)
- Poverty waiver: Families that make $35,000 or less per year qualify for a waiver
- Annual reporting: DPW shall hold an annual public hearing to receive input on its priority list of storm water projects, and shall report annually to the council how it spent the money the prior year and what its priority projects are for the upcoming year.
- Effective date: July 1, 2008
Projected annual revenue: $10-$11 million.
- Other points:
- The amendment keeps the language in the existing amended Administration bill about the purpose, uses and allowable expenses for the SMART fund, but it deletes all the language about how the fees are assessed on new permits.
- Tax credits: The amendment retains the 50% waiver for a green roof, but has no other language about tax credits. Cathy Vitale's separate bill has provisions for tax credits.
A message from Save Your Annapolis Neck, a committee of South River Federation and Annapolis Neck Peninsula Federation that educate citizens about issues which affect their quality of life:
All of our communities enjoy the South and/or Severn Rivers. Bacteria levels have been the worst they have been in the last two years. Do we let this go on? The city of Annapolis already has a fee… it's time Anne Arundel County government takes action.
Managing Storm water and restoring Creeks and Streams is a top priority and a goal of the Leopold Administration. However, the details of how it's done are where the water meets the drain. There is a "new" amendment to Bill 76-07 -- which needs your support -- and upon which the County Council will vote on Monday, November 19. I ask that you make one phone call to Ed Reilly or Cathy Vitale (or both) who are the swing votes on this issue on which environmental organizations in the County have been working for 10 years. If you can't call, an email will be a great help.
If your community members can be at the council meeting, even better: 7 p.m. at the Arundel Center, 44 Calvert Street, Annapolis.
Bottom Line: To restore the creeks and streams in the 340 sub-watersheds in Anne Arundel County will cost $5 billion, yes billion, according to the County public works department. How fast we do restoration is directly proportional to the size of the restoration fund created. The "new" amendment being offered by Councilmen Dillon, Benoit, and Cohen, with our support, creates a storm water utility fee like water or sewer fees. The important elements of the bill are that the fund raises $10 million per year and that everyone pays (The Leopold bill only raises $5 million and only new construction pays. It is existing "old" construction, that has caused the problem.). Homeowners will pay $30 per year and businesses/commercial owners will pay a fee based on their amount of impervious surface. This fund could only be used for storm water restoration.
At stake is whether our streams can run slow and clean in the future for our children and grandchildren. Right now, neither water condition exists. We have so developed our County that impervious surfaces (roads, roofs, parking lots) channel rain loaded with pollutants (automobile droppings, lawn fertilizers, pesticides) directly into streams eroding banks, carrying the sediment and pollutants that are destroying biological habitat and aquatic life in creeks, rivers and Chesapeake Bay downstream.
Your help right now can turn this around.
Contact information: Edward R. Reilly - District 7
Work: (410) 721-2461
Cell: (443) 336-5638
ereilly@aacounty.orgCathleen M. Vitale - District 5
Home: (410) 544-4937
Cell:(443) 336-5634
cvitale@aacounty.orgFor more information about Save Your Annapolis Neck: email gwenn.azama@comcast.net or call 443-254-5934.
State of Maryland Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Legislation
The General Assembly ended its special session by earmarking $50 million for Chesapeake Bay cleanup. It's not the Green Fund, but it's good. Exactly how to spend it will be taken up in the regular session in 2008. Read the story in The Capital.
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