Hardly deterred by the well-paid lobbyists circulating the halls of the State House, environmentalist Ruth Alice White has a message for her lawmakers ? and she said they are listening.
“The representatives are very aware of how many constituents come,” said White, of Columbia.
“If no one comes, they think no one cares.”
White and more than 200 activists crowded a Senate conference room Monday in Annapolis to rally around an environmental legislative agenda and prepare to lobby their lawmakers during Environmental Action Day.
Activists urged their elected officials to support four proposals aimed at funding clean-water programs, limiting development along the Chesapeake Bay, boosting energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
House Speaker Michael Busch encouraged activists to visit their lawmakers, because “if you don?t think the developers are well represented down here, you?re kidding yourself.”
Gov. Martin O?Malley is scheduled to meet with environmental groups today and announce his support for the Global Warming Solutions Act, said spokesman Rick Abbruzzese.
The measure, one of the items on the environmental agenda, establishes limits on greenhouse gas pollution and creates a cap-and-trade system, in which a cap on emissions is set and companies can buy and sell pollution allowances.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, an influential environmental advocate, said the states need to move forward on global warming legislation to put pressure on the federal government.
“If you wait for the federal government, you are going to be waiting for a long time,” he said.
Clean fight
Environmentalists? lobbying efforts:
» Chesapeake Bay 2010 Trust Fund: Legislation defining how the annual $50 million will be spent to reduce nonpoint, or diffused, sources of pollution.
» Critical Area Act: Sweeping revision of a 1984 measure that would set standards for development in the 1,000 acres of the Chesapeake Bay?s tidal waters; strengthen penalties for violations; provide stronger enforcement; and update critical area maps.
» Energy efficiency: Measure codifying Gov. Martin O?Malley?s plan to reduce electricity consumption by 15 percent by 2015, and a second bill establishing a fund to offer energy efficiency services to underserved markets.
» Global Warming Solutions Act: Bill establishing limits on greenhouse gas pollution to reduce emissions by 25 percent by 2020 and creating timelines for agencies to develop programs to meet the limits. The measure also creates a cap-and-trade system, where a cap on emissions is set and companies can buy and sell pollution allowances.
