League of Women Voters of Maryland

AIR QUALITY Maryland has taken several actions to improve air quality the past two years. 1) The Healthy Air Act of 2006 requires the reduction in four pollutants by power plants. 2) The Maryland Clean Cars Act of 2007 adopts the more stringent California standards for vehicle emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency disallowed the California standards, but Maryland, along with several other states, is challenging this decision. 3) The Maryland Energy Administration’s EmPOWER Maryland program aims to reduce electricity consumption by 15% by 2015. 4) Recognizing that clean air does not respect state boundaries, Maryland became a member of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) with nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states in 2007. RGGI will design a regional cap-and-trade program for carbon dioxide. 5) The Governor established the Commission on Climate Change in April of 2007 to reduce greenhouse gases and assess the impacts of climate change on Maryland. The goal, announced in November, is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the state by 25% by 2020 and by 90% by 2050 using 2006 as the baseline. (The U.S. Senate passed a global warming bill that reduces emissions nationwide by 70% by 2050 using 2005 as the baseline.) A plan of action to accomplish the Maryland goals is expected in April. Though no bill has been introduced as yet, the environmental community expects a bill on global warming this year that will establish limits and timelines on greenhouse gases reductions, including a cap-and-trade system. Carol Filipczak