Pollution and bacteria prompted Maryland health officials to warn beachgoers of health hazards about 200 times last year, among the fewest in more than a decade. The state's 185 public beaches were open without any health advisories 98.9 percent of the time in 2016, according to the Maryland Healthy...
The developers of two wind farms planned off the coast of Ocean City are moving forward with their projects, accepting terms Maryland regulators laid out earlier this month in allowing them to collect subsidies from the state's electricity customers. Deepwater Wind and U.S. Wind have both notified...
Sen. Chris Van Hollen was quizzing the new secretary of agriculture nominee about cuts proposed for the Chesapeake Bay program at a recent hearing when a senator who represents a state far from Maryland chimed in. Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio had essentially the same question, but was focused on...
It was safe to jump into waters off of Fort McHenry almost 90 percent of the time in 2016, but the Baltimore harbor is still far from meeting a goal of becoming "swimmable and fishable" by 2020, according to a report being released Monday. The Healthy Harbor Initiative report again gives the Patapsco...
Legg Mason has donated $1 million to underwrite programming and other services at the POWER House, the Perkins Homes community hub operated by Living Classrooms Foundation. The POWER House provides education, workforce development, health and wellness programs, and other community services to residents...
Cicadas overwhelm tree branches across Maryland once every 17 years, like clockwork. But something — some suspect climate change — could be sounding their alarm clocks four years early. In recent days, the red-eyed, nugget-shaped insects have been spotted crawling out from beneath trees from Northern...
Maryland waters could be home to some of the nation's first — and by far its largest — offshore wind farms after the state Public Service Commission on Thursday approved ratepayer subsidies to support a pair of projects off the coast of Ocean City. Officials had been expected to choose one of the...
Maryland is prosecuting its fewest environmental crimes in at least two decades as Gov. Larry Hogan fulfills promises to ease regulatory burdens on businesses. The work force dedicated to enforcing laws and regulations that protect air quality and the Chesapeake Bay has been shrinking since the...
Electric car maker Tesla has added another product to its lineup: Solar roof tiles. As of Wednesday, customers worldwide could order a solar roof on Tesla's website. Installations will begin next month in the U.S., starting with California. Installations outside the U.S. will begin next year, the...
Global temperatures could exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above their preindustrial levels within the next 15 years, according to a new scientific study, crossing the first threshold under the Paris climate agreement and placing the world at a potentially dangerous level of climate change. The report...
A 20-year veteran of environmental nonprofits and state government has been named the new leader of the advocacy group Blue Water Baltimore. Jenn Aiosa, vice president and director of programs at the Chesapeake Conservancy, will join Blue Water as its executive director in June. Blue Water Baltimore's...
More than 40 dams across Maryland whose failure could cause deaths or significant destruction lack updated emergency plans, according to state officials. Now a new law is requiring owners of those dams — counties, municipalities and private businesses — to prepare. Emergency legislation signed...
For a second-straight year, the Chesapeake Bay posted a passing C grade in an evaluation by state environmental scientists — a sign the bay's health is holding steady, according to scientists. The report card issued by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science showed a modest gain...
Dru Schmidt-Perkins, who has lobbied for smart-growth and environmental-sustainability policies in Annapolis for 19 years, is stepping down from her role as CEO of 1,000 Friends of Maryland, the advocacy group said Thursday. "I made a commitment to stay for two years and now — 19 incredible years...
A spending agreement announced Monday that will keep the federal government open through September includes more than $500 million for a proposed new headquarters for the FBI — underscoring the bipartisan support in Congress for the massive project. The funding, short of the $1.4 billion needed...
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday restarting exploration of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic and off the Atlantic coast. The action could set up a legal confrontation over whether the Trump administration has the power to override a drilling ban in those areas that President...
Biologists are investigating an unusual number of humpback whale deaths along the Atlantic Coast since the beginning of 2016, including six in recent months at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay or along the Delmarva Peninsula. In all, 41 dead humpback whales have washed ashore between Maine and North...
A record amount of underwater grass has been reported in the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources said Thursday that there are 59,277 acres of underwater grass in the state's portion of the nation's largest estuary. Underwater grass is important,...
A heaping shoal of oysters might have peeked above the water two centuries ago near what is now the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Such a shoal could explain why the U.S. Army built the hexagonal Fort Carroll in that same area in the late-1840s to defend the busy harbor. But the shellfish have not thrived...
Almost five decades ago, Fred Huemmrich marched on the first Earth Day as a Pittsburgh high school student. Back then, standing up against air pollution was a controversial act, he remembers. He will make a similarly bold demonstration Saturday in Washington at the March for Science, even though...
There are more spawning-age female blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay than there have been in at least 28 years, a sign that efforts to help the species withstand natural population swings are working. An annual survey of the bay's crab population found that there are fewer crabs overall in the bay...
Smog increased slightly in Maryland last year amid hot weather, missing a recently tightened federal air quality standard. But state officials said the air was nevertheless healthier than it has been during muggy summers in the early 2010s. The Maryland Clean Air report found that ozone levels...
Marylanders could have an easier time finding — and affording — local crabs this summer, a survey of the Chesapeake Bay blue crab population suggests. There are more than 550 million blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay, an increase of more than a third over this time last year and one of the highest...
When Gov. Larry Hogan signed a state fracking ban into law Tuesday, the stroke of his pen might have sent ripples beyond Maryland’s borders. Environmentalists in Virginia, Pennsylvania and elsewhere are hoping that the action spurs decisionmakers in those states to give the controversial gas-harvesting...
Commercial real estate giant CBRE is always on alert for shifts in federal government policy that might impact its vast property management and investment business. But the Los Angeles-based Fortune 500 company never anticipated an effort to eliminate a voluntary, cost-effective initiative that...
A plan that Gov. Larry Hogan's administration had been considering to give watermen periodic access to oyster sanctuaries is dead in the water now that a recently passed bill has become law without Hogan's signature. The measure bars harvesting within protected oyster bars until a thorough survey...
Environmentalists cheered Tuesday as Gov. Larry Hogan followed through on his promise to sign a statewide fracking ban — and some predicted that Maryland's action could bolster efforts in other states to prohibit the controversial method of drilling for natural gas. "We already know this victory...
Though slowed by the thick mud left underfoot by Friday's heavy rains, about 20 local farmers and volunteers toiled away Saturday erecting the latest "high tunnel" greenhouse at the Real Food Farm in Northeast Baltimore. The group's goal is to turn the small plot of land in Clifton Park into prime...
The state Senate passed a resolution last week calling on Gov. Larry Hogan to publicly oppose President Donald Trump's proposal to eliminate a $73 million federal program to oversee the Chesapeake Bay cleanup. In a letter responding to the lawmakers, Hogan's secretaries of the Environment and Natural...
Frost coated the Chesapeake Bay region about 100 times a year in the early 1900s. A century later, there are about 30 fewer chilly mornings. The number of balmy nights, during which temperatures don't drop below 68 degrees, has grown by a similar margin. Plants spend a month less in winter hibernation...
The Maryland Senate on Friday approved a resolution imploring Gov. Larry Hogan to press the Trump administration not to cut tens of millions of dollars for restoring the Chesapeake Bay. The resolution now moves to the House of Delegates for consideration. The largely symbolic resolution carries...
Mr. Trash Wheel and Professor Trash Wheel, the celebrated personifications of Inner Harbor cleanup, could soon have a new colleague, spouse or big brother. The Healthy Harbor Initiative is raising $770,000 for a third trash wheel that filters debris from local waterways. This wheel would be the...
State lawmakers have quashed talks over whether and how to open Chesapeake Bay oyster sanctuaries to harvest, passing a bill that blocks any changes to the protected areas' boundaries for nearly two years. The measure, approved by veto-proof margins, comes as Republican Gov. Larry Hogan's administration...
President Donald Trump on Tuesday abandoned former President Barack Obama's policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — a move Maryland Democrats pledged to challenge in court and on Capitol Hill as a threat to public health and the climate. Trump's executive order suspends, rescinds or flags...
Maryland lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to an extension of the state's EmPOWER energy efficiency program. A coalition of businesses sent a letter to Gov. Larry Hogan urging him to sign the bill, which also has been championed by environmental advocates. The House of Delegates and state Senate...
The Maryland General Assembly on Monday gave final passage to a ban on fracking in the state, sending the measure to Gov. Larry Hogan for his promised signature. Environmental advocates and climate change activists have pressed for years to ban the controversial form of drilling for natural gas...
Bill will require developers to replant each acre of tree they cut down
Joel Hayden's investment, tens of thousands of dollars' worth of yellow-painted wire cages, is spread across his lawn in neat stacks. Just beyond the water's edge, his paycheck is burrowed in the mud. It's the eve of blue crab season for watermen like the 28-year-old Hoopers Island native, and...
Democratic leaders in the General Assembly introduced a resolution Thursday that calls on Republican Gov. Larry Hogan to oppose proposed cuts in federal funding for the Chesapeake Bay. President Donald J. Trump's proposed budget would eliminate all of the money for the Environmental Protection Agency's...
A ban on the hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in Maryland has moved a step closer to approval. The Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee voted 8-3 on Wednesday to pass a bill that already has cleared the House of Delegates. That sends the measure to the full Senate. Republican...
Legislation advancing in both chambers of the General Assembly could make all chicken raised in Maryland free from antibiotics. The Senate and House of Delegates separately on Monday passed bills forbidding chicken companies from routinely giving birds antibiotics used to treat humans, unless the...
Gov. Larry Hogan announced Friday he supports banning fracking, a surprise revelation that could make Maryland one of the first states to ban the controversial method of drilling for natural gas. The Republican governor said passing legislation to prohibit fracking was "an important initiative to...
President Donald Trump unveiled a budget Thursday that calls for eliminating spending on the Chesapeake Bay, reducing medical research and slashing the federal workforce to levels not seen in decades — part of an effort to force a historic resizing of the government he now leads. In Maryland, a...
About a dozen activists were arrested Thursday morning for blocking an entrance to the State House during a demonstration against fracking. Dozens of people stood in front of the State House steps, holding anti-fracking signs and singing, "We shall not be moved." Then, a smaller group moved in front...
Fifty-six million years ago, about 10 million years after the dinosaurs went extinct, something strange happened to our planet. It got hot. Really hot. Hotter than it had ever been since the Earth formed a few billion years earlier. Carbon signatures in the geological record show that global temperature...