NEWS
By James B. Hale | November 6, 2009
Twelve states, including Maryland, and the District of Columbia urged the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday to adopt more rigorous national policies so they can meet federal air pollution reduction requirements for the region. The Ozone Transport Commission approved a statement that said states will have trouble meeting air pollution reduction goals on time without tougher national laws. The commission comprises 12 Northeastern states and the District of Columbia, and was formed by the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. Ted Aburn, director of the Maryland Department of the Environment's Air and Radiation Management Administration, said though many states on the commission have made strides in cleaning the air, meeting EPA requirements is difficult when a lot of the pollution comes from other states.
NEWS
By Tyeesha Dixon | April 19, 2009
The General Assembly passed three environmental protection measures in its recently concluded session that affect fly ash, air quality and storm-water management, according to the county. The legislation strengthens existing regulations requiring air quality monitoring for coal fly ash and extends the statute of limitations for storm-water management plans to three years, providing consistent enforcement of environmental laws. The legislation also requires the state to include county reimbursement claims for environmental health monitoring and testing, in cases where the state collects fines.
NEWS
March 20, 2008
Maryland has dirty air and it's going to stay dirty longer, thanks to the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Once again, the Bush administration has chosen industry over science, and the public will pay the price. Shame on President Bush. EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson's decision last week to lower the pollution standard from 84 to 75 units of ozone for every billion units of air means improvements in air quality here will be slower than they should be. It was a judgment likely to save industry billions in pollution control investments but one with serious consequences for the health of thousands of Americans.
NEWS
By Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi | October 21, 2007
TEHRAN, Iran -- The inhabitants of this metropolis of 12 million people and perhaps as many cars, buses, trucks and motorbikes have seen something new on the streets in recent months: the city itself, unobscured by the thick layer of smog that normally blankets the capital. For years, pollution in Tehran seemed only to grow worse, the stench of exhaust more dizzying, the number of patients rushed to hospitals with breathing difficulties ever increasing. But a number of government measures, including rationing gasoline and limiting traffic in the city center, have noticeably changed this bleak landscape - and given back Tehran residents the stunning vistas of the Alborz mountain range that surrounds the city.
NEWS
By TOM PELTON | February 22, 2006
The Ehrlich administration stopped monitoring ozone pollution in Baltimore almost three years ago, despite the city's chronically bad air and the presence of the state's largest concentration of people with asthma. The Maryland Department of the Environment decided that keeping the monitors in the city is a waste of money because the state maintains six others in the surrounding suburbs, according to the agency. "You don't need to have a monitor on every corner to know that the air in one place isn't as clean as in another place," said Richard McIntire, an MDE spokesman.
NEWS
By Gwyneth K. Shaw | June 1, 2005
WASHINGTON - The governors of Maryland and Virginia met with Washington Mayor Anthony A. Williams yesterday, as part of their continuing effort to foster regional cooperation on issues ranging from the environment to tourism to gang control. After the meeting, Williams, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. signed an agreement creating the Interstate Air Quality Council, to help bolster the progress in improving air quality in the area. The secretaries of the environment and transportation from the three governments make up the council, and will work to help meet new federal ozone standards and other benchmarks.
NEWS
By Tom Horton | April 1, 2005
"Government should not pick winners and losers, but let consumers and the marketplace choose automotive technologies." THAT'S FROM THE Web site of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group representing Ford, General Motors, Toyota and other car builders. And here's where that fine philosophy has gotten us, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article: "The average fuel economy of new vehicles sold in the U.S. has been worsening since the late 1980s, the result of the increased popularity of SUVs and pickup trucks."
NEWS
February 10, 2005
Bush's budget hurts the poor and the planet Hooray for The Sun. We all need to see how the disaster of a budget put forth by President Bush will hurt those who need help the most ("Cuts called threats to bay, urban poor," Feb. 8). Community development programs for low-income people, food stamps, veterans' programs, health and human services programs, including some that deal with epidemics and chronic diseases, all face cuts in funding. Mr. Bush wants to lower the deficit, and that's a good thing.
NEWS
October 18, 2004
Tougher rules improve quality of the state's air Surely, there is some rule in journalism that forbids alliteration at the expense of accuracy, as when Tom Pelton described Maryland's air quality regulations as being "like laissez-faire Louisiana" -- clever writing, perhaps, but woefully inaccurate ("Md. trails other states in fight against dirty air," Oct. 10). Since 1990, Maryland has adopted local controls that have reduced our air pollution by 40 percent; the rest of the country, including our neighbors to the Midwest and South who export pollution to Maryland, have only reduced local pollution by 20 percent.
NEWS
By Anne Lauren Henslee | May 2, 2004
Harford County is among the nation's most polluted counties in terms of ozone levels, according to the latest figures from the Environmental Protection Agency. Likewise, Maryland is one of 31 states failing to meet EPA health standards for ground-level ozone. But it is not all bad news. "There has been a dramatic reduction in the amount of what we used to produce," said Randy Mosier, an air quality planner for the Maryland Department of the Environment. In the 1980s, the state averaged 20 days or more of ozone readings above national air quality standards.