environmental politics

Environmental regulators said Thursday they have given the final go-ahead for construction of the Harbor Point project, allowing the developer to begin driving pilings next week for a new Exelon Corp. office tower at the former factory site laced with toxic chemicals.

Climate change threat

A 21.9-acre parcel on campus in Catonsville declared surplus by state

A 30-second TV spot by Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler touts his record enforcing environmental laws, but it makes two claims that are overstated.

A Baltimore nonprofit AmeriCorps program will receive $200,000 in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant money to train 72 city residents for careers in environmental cleanup work.

The would-be developers of a residential neighborhood in Frederick are suing the federal government over groundwater contamination from neighboring Fort Detrick.

The legal blogosphere was buzzing last month with the discovery of a major gaffe in a Supreme Court decision that had just been released. What attracted all the attention was not so much the substance of the error — misrepresenting the position of the Environmental Protection Agency in a case decided in 2001 — but its source: Justice Antonin Scalia, the author of the Court's decision in the 2001 case.

With debris from last week's deluge still littering the Inner Harbor, the city is poised to launch a new tool in its fight against the rafts of floating trash that routinely gross out Baltimore's waterfront visitors and residents alike.

New Gansler ad highlights 2007 bay cleanup agreement. A second ad in Baltimore will focus on education.

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

EPA's new five-year plan calls for doing fewer inspections and fewer enforcement actions, which worries some environmentalists. Agency officials say they intend to focus on the most important cases and use technology to help target their efforts.

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 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the Maryland Port Administration a $750,000 grant to extend the port of Baltimore's Dray Truck Replacement Program through March 2016, the port announced Monday.

Spring has finally sprung and Earth Day may be over but protecting our environment and preserving our land is an ongoing process. On Saturday, May 3 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Scenic Rivers Land Trust will be celebrating its 25th birthday with a garden party fundraiser at Hidden View Farm, located at 702 Defense Highway, in Crownsville. For detailed information, go to srlt.org.

Baltimore has joined with other major US cities in defending the federal government's authority to impose a "pollution diet" on the Chesapeake Bay.

Think sunshine — not just sweetness — when you see the Domino Sugars sign lighting up the Inner Harbor at night.

Thousands of scientists and researchers federal agencies have been hired in recent years under special hiring authority intended to help the government compete with the private sector for senior leadership positions. Government watchdogs warn, however, that officials must use the powers judiciously.

A top Environmental Protection Agency official visited Baltimore Thursday to make the case for a new federal rule spelling out what streams and wetlands enjoy legal protection from development or disturbance.

Decision to let Carroll and Frederick counties avoid imposing a stormwater fee by tapping property taxes instead unleashes a flood of problems for county, the state and the Chesapeake Bay

Gov. Martin O'Malley responds to Dan Rodricks' column on Program Open Space.

Latest United Nations report details more widespread dangers of climate change that governments and business are ill-prepared to address

Tya Courtney, who grew up in foster care, bought her first home through a program offered by Habitat for Humanity of the Chesapeake.

Environmental regulators gave a key approval to Harbor Point developers Thursday, but said they need to review more data before work that would open a currently-closed toxic waste site can start.

Richard P. Healy, an environmental engineer whose career with the Environmental Protection Agency spanned more than three decades, died Saturday of cancer at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 61.

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.

As officials roll out a long-planned expansion of street sweeping from downtown and central Baltimore to more than 90 percent of the city beginning in April, they say they will be relying on cooperation from residents rather than enforcement efforts.

The Food & Water Watch organization claims that the chicken companies operating on Maryland's Eastern Shore are the Chesapeake "Bay's biggest polluters" and that they are getting a free ride on the backs of the taxpayers. The facts speak otherwise.

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.

How can Baltimoreans "strive for environmental justice for all citizens, particularly in the face of climate change?" That's one of the central questions to be tackled Thursday evening at a forum put on by the Friends of Maryland's Olmsted Parks & Landscapes.

President Barack Obama unveiled a $3.9 trillion federal budget on Tuesday that calls for spending billions more on infrastructure, raising taxes on the wealthy and closing an income inequality gap the president has made a top target of his second term.

New federal auto emission and fuel standards announced Monday should help clear Maryland's summer smog and even aid the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay, according to state environmental officials.

The EPA should alter its rules on fuel for sea vessels to account for the impact on near-shore shipping.

The EPA and CFPB arguably have more power to issue regulations that affect our economy than any other regulatory bodies, yet they're among the worst offenders when it comes to cronyism and favoritism among their ranks. It's time Americans are clear that partisan activists and impartial regulation don't mix.

Better to take climate change out of the courts and into the hands of the free market

A mercury spill was reported at Harford Technical High School near Bel Air Thursday afternoon, Harford County emergency services and school spokespersons said.

Supreme Court must uphold EPA greenhouse gas rules as the nation's best — and likely only — opportunity to address climate change

With significantly less development and growth than anticipated in Havre de Grace, Mayor Wayne Dougherty has recommended a minimum increase of 15 percent in water and sewer rates to ensure the health of the city's water and sewer fund in the coming 2015 fiscal year.

Maryland needs to better monitor and document professional pesticide use to judge its impact on public health and the environment

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will tighten fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks as part of an effort to address greenhouse gas pollution administratively rather than waiting on Congress.

Sticker shock over price hikes is causing review of a law passed two years ago to shore up the finances of the National Flood Insurance Program.