Environment

The power plant in Morgantown in Charles County is the fifth in Maryland to set an end date for coal burning this year.

Baltimore Del. Brooke E. Lierman envisions using the state comptroller’s access to vast amounts of data to influence policies. She also wants to use the office's field locations to offer financial literacy programs and small business training.

Maryland lawmakers were again frustrated with more questions than answers Wednesday, as the governor’s former chief of staff — forced by a subpoena — appeared before them to discuss the six-figure payout he received from his prior state job.

Curbside recycling pickup will likely resume in Baltimore in mid-January, after a nearly five-month pause due to the pandemic, Mayor Brandon Scott said.

With seas rising, farmers along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts increasingly suffer from one of the initial impacts of climate change: saltwater intrusion. The plague of salt is arriving not just from storms and tide but also underground, where it can migrate undetected until crops shrivel.

A regulation that the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is considering would create new criteria for carving out public shellfish fishery areas — places where commercial harvesters have the exclusive right to gather natural oysters for market.

Over the course of 2½ hours of questioning, Matthew Sherring invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 150 times.

Matthew Sherring held the position of director of operations at the environmental service, where McGrath was the executive director before his brief and ill-fated tenure this summer as the Republican governor’s top staffer.

The American Meteor Society said the fiery object was spotted from Ontario and Eastern Michigan, New York and Maryland. The meteor was seen at 12:09 p.m., the organization said, and there were reports of sound as it zipped into sight.

Many environmental advocates hoped a “no” vote from the board could spur state officials to evaluate renewable energy solutions for Somerset, like wind, geothermal and solar power.

The cascading consequences of saltwater intrusion were starkly revealed in interviews with more than 100 researchers, planners and coastal residents, along with soil testing and analyses of well-sample data conducted by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism.

The pipeline project, which will soon go before the Maryland Board of Public Works, would bring natural gas to Somerset County, but environmental advocates argue the state should be arranging renewable energy projects instead.