Environmentalists barely pass legislature

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In the best session for environmental legislation in four years, members of the General Assembly still barely earned a passing grade, according to an environmental group’s annual scorecard.

The Maryland League of Conservation Voters discussed its 2012 evaluation of legislators Tuesday standing atop Federal Hill Park, overlooking the picturesque but polluted water of Baltimore‘s Inner Harbor.

The group lauded legislators for passing a package of water quality bills that could aid the state’s waterways, and celebrated record funding for environmental programs, including $63 million for the Chesapeake Bay Trust Fund and $70 million for Program Open Space.

But conservation advocates used the backdrop of last week’s region-wide power outages to emphasize the importance of diversifying the state’s energy portfolio through development of clean energy technology, like offshore wind.

“In the aftermath of the recent extreme weather, voters now more than ever deserve to know who is voting for clean water and renewable energy when they come to Annapolis and those who do not,” said Karla Raettig, the group’s executive director. She called the 2012 regular session “a mixed bag.”

The Senate scored 63 percent overall and the House of Delegates held a slight edge with 69 percent, helped along by the lower chamber’s ability to pass offshore wind legislation that died in a Senate committee.

A gaping partisan divide kept the overall score down. In the Senate, Democrats scored an 81 percent and Republicans scored 8 percent. Democratic members of the House scored 92 percent, while Republicans scored 21 percent.

Republican members of the legislature frequently objected to the cost of some environmental programs and those programs’ impact on business.

Del. Tom Hucker, a Montgomery County Democrat who scored 100 percent after sponsoring the wind legislation and a bill that bans arsenic additives in chicken feed, said he hoped Gov. Martin O’Malley would make offshore wind one of his legislative priorities again in 2013. The governor backed the bill in 2012, and was disappointed when it failed.

O’Malley “was involved plenty” in trying to push the legislation, Hucker said, but opponents in the Senate Finance Committee would not budge.

“The ability [for advocates] to focus on one chamber will certainly help the effort,” Hucker said. “It’s important one or two of the senators who have concerns with the bill tell us what they’d like to see, and not just what they don’t like.

“Ultimately, [O’Malley is] not sitting on a committee with a vote. He did his job.”

Democrats in both chambers improved their scores over 2011, when senators were graded at 70 percent and delegates were graded at 78 percent. Republicans saw their grades slip from 2011, when senators scored 34 percent and delegates scored 42 percent.

There were 15 senators and 72 delegates who had perfect scores in 2012. Eight senators and 11 delegates scored zero.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Anne Arundel, scored 100 percent and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, scored 75 percent.

Advocates agreed that offshore wind would be their focus in 2013. Tommy Landers, director of advocacy group Environment Maryland, said renewable energy was the best way to battle climate change and reduce the occurrence of violent weather.

“It’s happening because we’re putting too much junk in the air, we’re putting too much carbon in the air,” Landers said, putting the onus on state lawmakers to fix that. “These are the leaders that are going to put us on the map.”