The Capital News Service (CNS) reported the positions of the three Democratic candidates for governor of Maryland on the issue of greenhouse gas emissions reduction last week (3/12/14). The candidates, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, Attorney General Doug Gansler, and Del. Heather Mizeur, all said that they would "make it a priority to incentivize the use of alternative energy sources in the state."1 With over 7,000 miles of coastline, Maryland is especially vulnerable to rising sea levels caused by anthropogenic climate change because the waters of the Chesapeake Bay are rising at 2 to 3 times that of the world's seas and oceans.2 CNS reports that this rise in coastal water levels could affect over 900,000 people over the next 50 years, hence the importance of this issue to participants in the gubernatorial race.
In a prepared statement, Lt. Gov. Brown said, "To meet our objective, we will work together across the public and private sectors, to grow our clean and renewable energy sector, support the development of wind power, improve public transportation, and protect our natural lands." The current administration under Gov. Martin O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Brown has supported the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which seeks to have 20 percent of Maryland's energy generated from renewable sources by 2022. The Sierra Club wants to see the RPS increased from 20 percent to 40 percent by 2022, and to remove Black Liquor and wood waste from the RPS because they cause carbon emissions on par with burning bituminous coal. The Sierra Club has been lobbying in Annapolis to support bills for the 2014 legislative session that would support such changes to the RPS.
Attorney General Doug Gansler voiced his support for the RPS, and according to the CNS report, "Gansler said the environment has always been his top priority as the state's attorney general and he has "clearly" been the state's most aggressive attorney general on environmental issues."3 Gansler also mentioned the use of chicken manure as a renewable resource, although he admitted that its burning would "arguably contribute to air quality problems", and that burning chicken manure for power would have to comply with the Maryland Clean Air Act.4
Del. Heather Mizeur also came out in support of the RPS, but took it a step further by stating that she supports legislation that reclassifies Black Liquor as a non-renewable resource, and opposes trash incineration as a renewable energy source because both are significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Mizeur has the support of the Sierra Club, and mentioned the support she has from the environmentalist community in her statements: "The environmental community knows which candidate has had its back all these years and which ones haven't...And I'm excited to have the opportunity to make Maryland a true leader in fighting climate change, creating clean energy jobs, and cleaning and protecting our natural resources."5
The article can be found in the Star Democrat newspaper, here.
1 Compere, Brian, The Star Democrat, March 12, 2014.
2, 3, 4, 5 Ibid.