Comptroller Peter Franchot urged Gov. Martin O?Malley on Wednesday to revive an executive order requiring the state build more environmentally friendly, green, buildings.
But O?Malley was only vaguely supportive at the Board of Public Works meeting, saying the proposal was among many under study by his transition team committees. Representatives of two state departments told the Senate Budget Committee later they wanted more time to study the green construction and asked them to reject legislative mandates.
In 2001, Gov. Parris Glendening issued an order that all major state buildings or renovations had to be built with green standards, but Franchot said the Ehrlich administration “essentially squandered our leadership on this.”
Green buildings “save us money and save the environment,” Franchot said.
A series of architects reinforced that statement with examples and national studies to show that green buildings use less energy, save water, emit less greenhouse gases, produce less waste and ultimately increase worker productivity because their occupants are more healthy.
Sens. Brian Frosh, D-Montgomery, and James Brochin, D-Baltimore County, are sponsoring four different bills to encourage more green buildings. One increases the income tax credits available to businesses that build green buildings, and allows nonprofit organizations with green buildings to sell the credits to business.
Two other bills encourage or mandate state agencies to build or rent environmentally friendly buildings, and another give a 5 percent cost preference to bids on school buildings that follow environmental standards.
“The common theme is these buildings pay for themselves in three to five years,” Brochin said.
The tax credits were so popular that the initial $25 million allocated was used up by 18 projects, Frosh noted, and he wants to add $25 million more. But Budget Chairman Ulysses Currie reminded Frosh that they had to be watchful about the cost of the credits with budget deficits forecast in coming years.
Sen. David Brinkley, R-Carroll-Frederick, said the proposal would decrease the number of projects funded. But Brochin said the savings in operating costs for schools more than made up for the additional 3 percent to 4 percent increase in the cost of constructions. “These schools are leaking energy,” Brochin said.
Chad Clapsaddle, head of the state?s capital program, said he and the Department of General Services, which operates state?s building, were “in an uncomfortable position,” urging that the mandates be delayed until studies were complete on three “green” state buildings currently under construction.
But Champe McCulloch, president of the Association of General Contractors, said, “there is ample data to justify” the bills, including numerous studies for the Green Building Council and the American Institute of Architects.
