Some lawmakers and lobbyists have said the environmental and energy proposals would have dire consequences. They have drawn comparisons to the state's effort to deregulate the energy industry, an idea championed by the legislature a decade ago and now lampooned by many of those same lawmakers, who say it only led to higher electrical rates.
"No one should think that these bills have been diluted to no effect. They are still big policy shifts," said Del. Anthony J. O'Donnell, the House minority leader from Southern Maryland. "This has huge ramifications for our lifestyle and our economy."
Annapolis took on a decidedly green bent last year when O'Malley took office.
The 2007 session kicked off with multiple screenings of Al Gore's global-warming film An Inconvenient Truth. Lawmakers passed a bill aimed at reducing emissions from cars and trucks, and enacted legislation to ban dishwasher detergent containing phosphate, one of the bay's main pollutants. Environmentalists declared that a new era had begun.
But they have seen setbacks since then. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moved late last year to block so-called "clean cars" laws. Maryland and other states responded with a lawsuit.
Also, Maryland lawmakers recently acted to delay the phosphorus detergent ban by six months, largely to appease large companies such as Procter & Gamble, which makes Cascade detergent and has a plant in Hunt Valley.
"That was one big misstep of the session," said Dru Schmidt-Perkins, executive director of a preservation group, 1000 Friends of Maryland.
Nonetheless, O'Malley made environmental and energy initiatives a major part of his modest agenda this year. Several of his proposals have drawn little opposition, such as a bill to require green construction practices for state buildings and schools. But others have faced resistance.
Among his most sweeping proposals are bills designed to reduce the state's energy consumption 15 percent by 2015 and to double the amount of renewable energy that power companies must provide for sale to customers. The clean energy goal - 20 percent of Maryland's power by 2022 - is higher than a target set by the District of Columbia but lower than New Jersey's.
Opponents argued that such mandates artificially raise the price of electricity, and Republicans criticized the administration for not addressing the need for new power plants and more transmission-line capacity.
