Mar 24, 2008 6:02 pm US/Eastern
Environmentalists Stall On Global Warming Debate
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ―
All was going green last year in the Maryland legislature, with environmentalists winning easy approval on many of their long-awaited priorities. This year, the story is different.
A plan to address global warming by slashing carbon emissions has been weakened. Tougher rules governing waterside development have been tweaked. A bill to put off a deadline for requiring lower phosphates in dishwashing detergent is headed toward approval.
And a major environmental accomplishment of last year -- a $50 million fund to clean up the Chesapeake Bay -- has already been raided by lawmakers before a single dollar is spent. The fund now stands at about $25 million.
Environmental activists say they're still making progress. But the going is much slower than it was last year, when lawmakers signed-off on pollution controls for power plants and mandated cleaner-burning cars.
The legislature also banned power clam dredging in Atlantic coastal bays and ended the commercial harvest of diamondback terrapins.
Activists hoped to regain momentum Monday in dramatic fashion. They chalked a blue line across an Annapolis street, about a quarter-mile away from the water, to represent a possible new shoreline if global warming isn't addressed.
"Sea level rise would be devastating for this city. And not just Annapolis. Baltimore, the Eastern Shore -- everywhere," said Tommy Landers of Environment Maryland.
The demonstration was aimed at House members, who are considering a global warming measure significantly weakened by the Senate.
Senators voted last week for carbon reductions scientists say are necessary to slow climate change.
But they amended the bill to take away power from state environmental regulators to enforce those reductions, a move environmentalists say would gut the bill.
A maneuver to try to get senators to reconsider the change failed.
If the Senate amendment stays in the bill, "it would be useless," Landers scoffed.
Landers and other activists at the protest said they were optimistic the House would reverse course and pass a stronger global warming bill.
But they said it was too soon to tell whether a bill they're calling the Global Warming Solutions Act can be revived.
Republicans say the environmental community has overreached in the last couple years and is seeing a natural slide as lawmakers shift focus to other areas.
If anybody overreaches, they make the mistake of not getting anything at all," said House Republican Leader Anthony O'Donnell.
Environmental activists, perhaps sensing that may be true, are quick to point out that much progress has been made.
And they say that any backsliding can be corrected in the next two weeks before lawmakers end work for the term.
In any case, activists say they don't want to appear ungrateful for successes they've had since O'Malley was elected two years ago.
"Compared to a couple years ago, we're in great shape," said David O'Leary, a volunteer with the Maryland chapter of the Sierra Club. "Then, we weren't making progress at all."
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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