environmental politics

Rubber tires contain a number of carcinogens and lung irritants. The government knows a lot about the harmful effect that tires present and yet the Environmental Protection Agency has actually promoted the use of shredded tires and artificial turf where our children play.

Gov.-elect Larry Hogan named a former Democratic lawmaker from Southern Maryland as state health secretary Tuesday as he continued to fill key posts in his administration.

Disposal of contaminant-laced ash from coal-burning power plants appears unlikely to change much in Maryland under long-awaited new federal regulations announced Friday, a state environmental regulator said.

Big Ag must be held to account for bay pollution

The U.S. Postal Service, beset by financial woes and cuts in service, still gets high marks from customers. Participants in a Gallup survey recently rated the Postal Service best among 13 major federal agencies.

Sections of the major highways of Harford County will be much greener in the coming years thanks to the State Highway Administration's two-year, $1.6 million project involving the planting of hundreds or thousands of trees in order to improve local water quality.

Stressing he doesn't intend to "park" his beliefs at the door, incoming Attorney General Brian E. Frosh spoke up Thursday in defense of two controversial environmental initiatives that Gov.-elect Larry Hogan has vowed to repeal or block.

As they prepare to meet Friday, Gov.-elect Larry Hogan and Attorney General-elect Brian E. Frosh both say they want to turn the page and work together. But the two men could find themselves at odds — especially about environmental issues.

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

Carol D. Lockwood, an opera singer who sang for years with the Baltimore Civic Opera Co., died Nov. 28 at the Golden Living Nursing Home in Frederick from complications of Alzheimer's disease. She was 86.

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler, encouraged by whopping awards and settlements in other states, could join what one analyst calls a "nationwide cascade" of litigation against the oil industry for its use years ago of a gasoline additive that has contaminated ground water across the state.

Hogan, other incoming governors to meet with Obama

Hogan to propose 'rain tax' repeal in first legislative package

Maryland is only state in Chesapeake Bay region with a 'rain tax' and it should be the first to rescind one, too

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.

November has been a good-news/bad-news month for the climate struggle. The U.S. and China just inked an historic agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions, but that accord is imperiled by the American electorate.

Despite the significance of public policy in our lives, university-based schools of public policy have recently come under criticism for allegedly being irrelevant to what really matters in government. The critiques are, in my view, flawed in many ways, but they rightly point out a need to provide future public servants with the tools that they require to research, craft, execute and evaluate policies that affect our everyday lives. After all, schools that provide this training help make our

All Maryland's waterways deserve protection

With just nine weeks left in Gov. Martin O'Malley's term, time grows short for him to act if he intends to go through with a much-delayed plan to curb Eastern Shore farmers' use of chicken manure in order to help restore the Chesapeake Bay. Farmers, though, hope he delays or drops the plan, as they contend it's too costly and unnecessary.

Latest Army Corps of Engineers study shows Conowingo Dam's trapped sediments are far from the Chesapeake Bay's biggest pollution threat

Dredging millions of tons of sediment from the Susquehanna River upriver of Conowingo dam would potentially cost billions of dollars and do relatively little to help the Chesapeake Bay compared with current pollution cleanup efforts, a new federal-state study says.

Deal with China could jump-start international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — if Congressional Republicans don't stand in the way

A loophole in the Clean Water Act allows polluters to dump about 200 million pounds of toxic chemicals into waterways nationwide each year.

The Board of Carroll County Commissioners signed a letter on Thursday stating their intent to join Dorchester and Kent Counties in their efforts to persuade federal and state agencies to allow them to engage in oyster restoration in the Chesapeake Bay.

Maryland's new Republican governor needs to hit the ground running with action on the budget, bi-partisan legislation and a listening tour of key constituencies.

Loophole in Clean Water Act threatens health of waterways in Maryland and elsewhere

Republican Michael Anthony Peroutka and Democrat Patrick Armstrong are competing to represent Severna Park, Arnold and Broadneck on the Anne Arundel County Council.

Democrats run the economy better

Lily DeBell, an eighth-grader at Roland Park Elementary/Middle School, wins a national contest for young entrepreneurs. She makes leg warmers for young dancers.

The Board of Carroll County Commissioners voted to approve the joint operating agreement between the eight municipalities and the county to share the same federal permit and the costs of stormwater management projects at a meeting Thursday night.

A Republican Senate would not end political gridlock in Washington but spells trouble for progressive causes from health care reform to combating climate change

Carroll County Shoemaker Rothschild NPDES MS4 Permit Stormwater

Howard County executive candidates Allan Kittleman and Courtney Watson have released a new round of platforms, one on aging and the other on the environment.

Republican Larry Hogan says the main thing needed to clean up the Chesapeake Bay is to get other states to stop sending sediment pollution down the Susquehanna River. Democrat Anthony Brown and most scientists say the problem is more complicated than that.

Baltimore is already feeling the effects of climate change

Unfair to criticize Perdue Farms for its efforts to reduce the impact of poultry manure

An input meeting to discuss the Loch Raven North Small Watershed Action Plan takes place Sept. 29 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

The impact of climate change affects us all

Jones Falls, whose watershed is home to about 200,000 people and spans some 40 square miles from Garrison to the Inner Harbor, is set to begin a series of restoration and maintenance projects to improve recreational conditions and overall stream health.

A recent survey of construction sites in the Baltimore area found less than a quarter of the exposed soil being worked had been properly protected from erosion, which harms the health of streams, rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.

Delmarva Peninsula fox squirrel is a rare success story in the 41-year history of the Endangered Species Act, and much of the credit goes to Guy W. Willey Sr. of Cambridge.

State and federal environmental officials have reached cleanup agreements with the owners of the former Sparrows Point steel mill in Baltimore County.

Carroll County government has set aside $20.5 million to complete more expensive stormwater runoff projects over the next five years after having already done projects that are "low-hanging fruit."

Legislators from Maryland and Pennsylvania sparred at a hearing in Annapolis Monday over whether their states are doing too much or too little to reduce Chesapeake Bay pollution.

Longtime build-up of silt and sediment at Conowingo Dam is a concern but not an excuse to reduce Maryland's Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts

Maryland is failing to deal squarely with the problem of carbon emissions from electricity production. Given growing public concern about climate change, a fundamental change in our energy policy should be to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and pursue the development of emission-free nuclear power.

About 70 minutes after the derailment and fiery explosion of a chemical-laden train in Rosedale last year, a team of county firefighters, state environmental experts and CSX Transportation officials entered the "hot zone." New documents outline the extent of the chemical spill.