Improving the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay, and the rivers and streams that feed the bay should be a high priority for Maryland residents. What is debatable is how best to make improvements. The current state administration is missing a wonderful opportunity by relying upon old unsuccessful approaches of building bureaucratic institutions, using threats instead of incentives, and using selected and partial data.
The Governor supports Maryland Senate Bill 309 and its companion House Bill 712 “Global Warming Solutions – Reductions in Greenhouse Gases” http://mlis.state.md.us/2008RS/billfile/sb0309.htm.
The 7 items listed within the General Assembly Findings are without substantiation. As just one example, Finding # 3 speaks to the threat global warming has on rising sea levels. The truth, in fact, is a misperception based upon the myth that polar ice caps are melting (they are not). In fact, there are coastal areas that are sinking, hence the appearance of rising sea levels.
I too want to see environmental improvements. Given my own education and background, I took a rational look at the proposed bills as well as opposing viewpoints. Unfortunately, the state proposed approach is to pollute water clean-up efforts with discredited data associated with Global Warming.
Want to learn for yourself? Read the book “Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media”, by Patrick J. Michaels, Cato Institute, Washington, DC. 2004 second printing 2007.
Reading “Meltdown” will make you more informed and able to see through the false claims of the “Global Warmists.” Be forewarned, the book is complete with charts and graphs. If it is not a current text book in schools, it should be.
Too often symbolic gestures commonly noted these days to “raise global warming awareness” such as the students in St. Mary’s City taking the “Polar Plunge to Raise Global Warming Awareness” February 1, 2008, and the upcoming March 29, 2008, worldwide city blackouts for “Earth Hour” in cities such as Atlanta, San Francisco and Phoenix.
More rational solutions can be found other than that contained in the proposed legislation. Perhaps our high school and college students should be required to read “Meltdown.”
Let’s suggest a different approach over that being proposed by the Maryland Legislature. With focus especially upon the Patuxent watershed and its total maximum daily load (basically the amount of pollution tolerated by the water) permissible to sustain water quality, incentives will work.
We know that nitrogen entering the watershed contributes to unhealthy water. Rather than penalizing polluters, give tax incentives for minimizing pollution. For example, each citizen of Calvert County using a septic tank could receive a $10,000 tax credit and be encouraged to replace their current septic tank to a nitrogen removing system.
Businesses should be offered tax credits to create and install water treatment or clarification methods. American initiative and ingenuity would result in new technology that more efficiently cleans the waterways.
Incentives could be created to those who depend upon the wat