air pollution

Clean up Maryland's coal-fired plants

We ask the Gov. Larry Hogan to do the right thing and quickly issue strong nitrogen oxide regulations that bring Maryland's power plants up to snuff. Baltimore should benefit from the Clean Air Act just like the rest of the country. Instead, we continue to breathe dangerously polluted air with no fix in sight.

NRG is a leader in clean energy — just not in Maryland.

Much has been said and written about proposed new emissions regulations in Maryland, including two recent letters to the editor in the Sun that vilify NRG Energy and misrepresent its stance on improving Maryland's environment. In the interest of accuracy, I'd like to provide some background and NRG's true position.

So-called 'emergency' rules on coal-fired power plants are a cave-in to industry

'Flexibility' on coal plants will cost Maryland dearly

Marylanders should not underwrite coal-fired power plants with health care dollars

The body of a Dundalk woman missing since Saturday has been found at the Wheelabrator trash incineration facility in Baltimore, police in Baltimore County said Tuesday.

By Alison Knezevich

Apr 22, 2015

Larry Hogan only counts as an environmental governor for those who don't breathe.

Gov. Larry Hogan is backing away from his predecessor's attempt to make coal-fired power plants install costly new pollution controls, switch to cleaner-burning fuel or shut down.

By Timothy B. Wheeler

Apr 17, 2015

Like many of 9,000 people who work at the Goddard Space Flight Center, George J. Huffman is charged with developing technology to study the Earth from above.

By Yvonne Wenger

Apr 13, 2015

Hogan's opposition to clean air standards will cost Md. dearly

Environmental and health groups have launched a television ad blitz Thursday calling on Gov. Larry Hogan to release an air pollution regulation that he blocked when he took office.

By Timothy B. Wheeler

Apr 2, 2015

A House committee is scheduled to hear testimony on a bill that would impose an air pollution regulation that Gov. Larry Hogan withdrew when he took office.

By Timothy B. Wheeler

Mar 12, 2015

Millions of Chinese speakers around the world watched "Under the Dome," the 104-minute documentary about China's air pollution situation before it was removed by the government. In China, demanding accountability is never OK, even when the topic is as widely known and severe as air pollution.

Marylanders must demonstrate their support for clean energy because their governor won't

Increased incidence of asthma traced to race and income may also be a result of pollution in low-income neighborhoods

Hogan wrong to withdraw regulations to reduce air pollution from coal-fired power plants

New governor's decision to delay or defer clean air rules in Maryland is counter-productive

New governor has worsened life for asthma patients by withdrawing Maryland limits on smog from power plants

Hogan wrong to block broadly-supported rules to reduce air pollution in Maryland

In one of his first acts after taking office Wednesday, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan withdrew a handful of regulations proposed in the final weeks of the previous Democratic administration. One hotly contested proposal would have curbed Eastern Shore farmers' use of poultry manure on their fields.

By Timothy B. Wheeler

Jan 21, 2015

Not so green

American Petroleum Institute: Stricter ozone standards would be disastrous for the economy.

City smog threatens our health and the economy

GOP plan to thwart EPA rules foolishly ignores the grave threat posed by air pollution and climate change to American health and economy

EPA's stricter standards on smog would bring some relief to Maryland residents but more is needed

The Obama administration announced Wednesday a long-anticipated move to tighten limits on smog-forming pollution, declaring that despite improvements in air quality in Maryland and nationwide, millions of vulnerable adults and children risk illness and even premature death from inhaling currently acceptable levels.

By Timothy B. Wheeler

Nov 26, 2014

Unfortunately a bill recently passed by the Baltimore City Council allowing the use of e-cigarettes in restaurants, taverns and casinos not only weakens Baltimore and Maryland's longstanding and popular smoke-free laws, it threatens the health of many city workers. We urge Mayor Rawlings-Blake to see through the tobacco industry smokescreen and use her power to veto this ordinance.

Pollution controls needed for coal-fired plants

None of the business leaders, politicians or the economic analysts quoted by The Sun mention the health costs of locating a new industrial CSX facility near a residential neighborhood. No one put a price tag on the proposed increase in air pollution, its health effects and the resulting loss in productivity.

Continued over the long-term, voluntary, individual actions and partnerships to educate the public about what those actions are, will be an integral part of the solutions to improving the air in the greater metropolitan Baltimore-Washington region. Together, we can make a difference and help ensure we all have a daily supply of healthy, life-giving clean air to breathe.

Poor air quality, at levels hazardous to children and the elderly, is forecast in the Baltimore area Tuesday, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Instead of the federal CO2 level, Maryland must focus on the state level to eliminate the toxic pollutants nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. This can only be achieved by retiring the Charles P. Crane and Herbert A. Wagner coal power plants that produce them.

A planned power plant in Fairfield that environmental groups and local schoolchildren have protested faces millions of dollars in fines and has been ordered to halt construction because organizers didn't buy enough emissions credits to offset air pollution the facility will create, according to state officials.

State must stand firm behind efforts to promote alternative energy, reduce air pollution

Efforts to clean up power plant emissions could make life better for all

Temperatures are forecast to hit the lower 90s Tuesday with the heat and sunshine fueling a rise in ozone pollution, prompting an air quality alert.

Although hookah lounges are becoming more popular, smoking flavored tobacco through water pipes creates hazardous concentrations of indoor air pollution, according to a new study from the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Supreme Court's support of EPA curbs on out-of-state air pollution is life-saving news for downwind states like Maryland

Air quality has improved a lot in Maryland and nationwide over the past 15 years, according to a new report by the American Lung Association. But summertime smog levels in Harford and Prince George's counties are still among the worst in the country, the group found.

The family that owns the Black Olive restaurant and runs the Inn at The Black Olive is monitoring the air outside the hotel — across the street from the planned Harbor Point development — as a check on the official monitoring happening on site.

Environmental regulators said Wednesday that construction on the Harbor Point project could begin by the end of the month, after they approved a plan to measure air quality at the toxic former factory site.