The O'Malley administration is proposing to pare back a bill aimed at reducing global-warming pollution after Maryland industries warned that the legislation could put them out of business.
Instead of requiring a 90 percent cut in greenhouse gases statewide by 2050, an amended version of the bill would set this as a goal.
"The Maryland Department of the Environment will institute the planning process to get to the 2050 goal ... but we want to clarify that the bill does not require a straight-out 90 percent reduction," Maryland Environment Secretary Shari Wilson told a hearing of two House of Delegates committees yesterday.
The Global Warming Solutions Act would continue to require an average 25 percent cut in emissions from all businesses and homes by 2020. But supporters say a reduction of this size could be achieved through increased energy efficiency rather than having to abandon coal for wind power, solar panels or other new technologies.
State Del. Kumar P. Barve, the House majority leader and a sponsor of the legislation, said he would accept the administration's amendments because they retained the more important 2020 mandate.
"The 90 percent cut is an aspirational goal that we'd like to maintain," Barve said. "But let's be honest, I'll be 92 years old by then. ... Future legislatures will have to deal with this."
The amendments came as environmentalists and public health advocates argued that cuts in greenhouse gases are necessary to help save Maryland's 3,100 miles of coastline from flooding and prevent drought and disease.
But fighting hard against the limits have been owners of a steel mill, paper mill, brick factories, power plants and other industries - as well as some union officials who worry about their members losing jobs.
Brad Heavner, director of Environment Maryland, said he is not disappointed by the amendments because he expected compromise during the legislative debate.
"To meet the 2050 goal, we need new technologies - so it's entirely appropriate that they will review the goals as we move forward," Heavner said.
Bill Pitcher, lobbyist for the NewPage paper mill in Western Maryland, which had said the bill as originally drafted could force it close, said he was "encouraged" by the compromise.
To force the Maryland paper mill to stop burning coal - the cheapest fuel - while competing Chinese paper mills keep burning coal would bankrupt NewPage, which employs 950 workers, he said. "If this regulation passed [in its original form] it would put that plant out of business," Pitcher said.
