Power plants and other industries would have to pay more than $2 million a year in new air pollution fees so the state could hire more environmental enforcement officers under a bill being debated in Annapolis.
The O'Malley administration is supporting the legislation, which would allow the Maryland Department of the Environment to use the money to fill 26 positions that have been vacant because of several years of budget cuts.
"We need to have adequate enforcement of our air pollution laws, and we don't have that - only 18 inspectors looking after 11,600 sources of air pollution," said Sen. Brian E. Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat and sponsor of the bill. "That means more air pollution, which causes more health problems for people."
Critics of the legislation say that raising the fees on smokestacks would place an unfair burden on businesses and could lead to higher electric bills for a public already complaining about rate increases.
Michael Powell, a lobbyist who represents several businesses in the Maryland Industrial and Technology Alliance, said the fees would amount to yet another tax from the O'Malley administration.
"This is not the year to impose [millions] in new taxes on industry," Powell said. "It's something we frankly can't afford, and it will give a huge war chest to the Maryland Department of the Environment to do with what they please."
Supporters of the bill argue that Maryland hasn't been following federal rules that require the state to charge enough in annual fees to industry to fund the state's air pollution control program. As a result, the MDE's air division has a $1 million deficit and has failed to issue permits - required nine years ago - for two of the state's largest coal-burning power plants. Another big plant is operating with a permit that has expired.
Eric Schaeffer, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official, said that for Maryland to allow the plants to operate without the required air pollution control permits is like the government not requiring taxpayers to file tax returns.
"Without the permits, you don't know what's going on and you don't know if the pollution limits are being met," said Schaeffer, now an environmental activist.
Maryland's air quality has improved in recent years, in part because of tighter federal standards, and the state passed one of the toughest air pollution laws in the country in 2006. But 85 percent of state residents continue to live in areas where ozone and soot pollution violate federal standards.
State environmental officials said they support the proposed new annual fees, which would increase from the current rate of $42 per ton for pollutants including sulfur dioxide and mercury to $50 per ton. Maryland's fees today are less than half those in New Jersey and 24 percent less than Pennsylvania's.
"We need to have enough staff to do the inspections we need to do, and write all the permits we are supposed to write, and do everything the Clean Air Act requires of us," said Tad Aburn, director of the MDE's air and radiation management division.
He said funding cuts and hiring freezes over the past six years have meant that his division's staff of 200 is about 26 employees short. With an additional $2 million a year in revenues, Aburn said he could hire up to 30 employees to conduct inspections, write permits, monitor air quality and develop new regulations.
About 90 percent of the increased fees would come from the largest owners of power plants in the state, Constellation Energy and Mirant, with the rest coming from 463 smaller smokestack industries. Constellation's annual fees would jump from about $700,000 a year to $1.7 million a year, in part because a cap on maximum annual payments would be lifted.
"The higher fees as proposed by the bill would increase upward pressure on energy prices," said Rob Gould, a spokesman for Constellation Energy, which opposes the bill.
The state's largest single source of air pollution, the Morgantown power plant in Charles County, had an air permit that expired in September 2006. The state's third- and fifth-largest sources, the Chalk Point and Dickerson plants in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, were never issued the federally required permits. All three are owned by Atlanta-based Mirant.
The fact that these plants lack permits doesn't mean they can spew unlimited pollution. The plants are still bound by state air pollution regulations, and often decades-old agreements between the power companies and the state.
But the permits hold companies more accountable because they require more reporting from plant owners and force company executives to sign annual statements - under threat of perjury charges - swearing that their plants are meeting all air pollution limits.
tom.pelton@baltsun.com