FAS chemicals have created a toxic and lasting legacy of pollution. We must take action to “turn off the tap” of these forever chemicals and we have an opportunity this session to do just that. Contact your legislators today.
Yesterday, I testified in favor of Senate Bill 723, to give consumers a right to repair their electronics. This might not seem like an environmental issue, but the flood of thrown away products has an enormous environmental impact. Read the joint written testimony signed by 9 organizations below.
SB723: Consumer Protection: Right to Repair
Senate Finance Committee
March 11, 2020
FAVORABLE
On Thursday, January 23, Baltimore’s Department of Public Works held a public information session on its tasks and progress on sewers and Baltimore’s sewage consent decree. DPW lawyer Paul DeSantis spoke for the brunt of presentation, and afterwards six stations were also held to elucidate issues in the eye of the public.
On Thursday Feb., 20 and Tuesday Feb., 25, I was able to attend and and testify for introductions of House Bill 438 and Senate Bill 560 into their respective committees (Economic Matters in the House, and Finance for the Senate).
Today, Clean Water Action joined environmental advocates and community leaders from across the country for a rally and hearing in Washington, DC to speak out against the Trump Administration's rollbacks of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Check out the testimony of Kim Gaddy, Clean Water Action's Environmental Justice Organizer, who traveled from Newark, NJ to speak at the hearing.
This week, Governor Hogan announced his surprising new intent to phase out the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos not by passing a new law, but by starting a new regulatory process. Unfortunately, time and time again, we have seen the Maryland Department of Agriculture undermine environmental policy through a regulatory process that has minimal public input and accountability. Click here to tell your representatives: we must ban chlorpyrifos through legislation, not regulation.
Today, the House Economic Matters Committee is holding a hearing on HB438, a bill to correct a mistake Maryland made nine years ago: to call trash incineration renewable energy, and subsidize it with money meant to support new wind and solar power. We submitted this joint testimony signed by 33 organizations in Maryland.
Testimony Supporting HB438 & SB560
House Economic Matters Committee | Senate Finance Committee
February 20, 2020 | February 25, 2020
Position: Support
Today, the House Environment and Transportation Committee is holding a hearing on HB589, a bill to help build Maryland's compost industry by phasing in a requirement that large food waste producers (restaurants, cafeterias, schools, and large institutions) keep that food waste out of the trash if there is a compost facility that could take it. We submitted this joint testimony signed by 28 organizations in Maryland.
Joint Post with Anna Reade, Staff Scientist with Natural Resources Defense Council
The estimated number of Californians affected by water contaminated by toxic PFAS chemicals is rising. Data released just last week confirms that California has cause for worry, and underscores that the state should act now to protect its residents. One way to do that is to pass laws that stop unnecessary use and release of these harmful chemicals and that provide for better testing for them.
In a very memorable episode of Seinfeld, Kramer and Newman take off in Newman’s mail truck loaded down with empty pop cans to return in Michigan for a tidy profit of 10 cents per can. The scheme was hatched in Jerry’s apartment, and their initial run was to be a sort of test to see whether or not a massive operation of muling pop cans into Michigan to defraud our bottle bill program was feasible.