All the major environmental bills passed by the General Assembly this year were signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Martin O?Malley, including legislation that will mandate tougher emissions standards for new cars in 2010, raising the cost of each vehicle by at least $1,000.
The governor also signed legislation to heighten controls on pollution from stormwater, to allow for the production of wind power, to prohibit phosphorus in dishwashing detergent, to stop clam dredging in coastal waters and to ban commercial fishing for diamondback terrapin turtles.
There were also measures to promote restoration of the oyster population and put more emphasis on constructing environment-friendly “green” buildings.
Since many of the bills passed with little of the controversy, vetoes and veto overrides sometimes seen under Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich in recent years, O?Malley said the bills got less attention than they deserved.
“I?m inclined to veto all of these,” he jokingly said, so that they would get more media coverage.
The governor posed with two snapping Maryland terrapins to illustrate the ban on catching the official state reptile and University of Maryland mascot, which has been exported to Asia as a delicacy.
Senate President Thomas Mike Miller, who signed the bills with O?Malley and had urged the new governor to pass new taxes this year, said the terrapin was “like the administration.” “It might not go as fast as we want it to go, but it never goes backward,” Miller said.
Caught off guard, O?Malley turned red in the face, then laughed and said, “Fear the turtle,” a cheer used by the university?s sports teams.
O?Malley said the legislation he signed would help live up to the state seal, which shows “a ploughman and a fisherman together in harmony.”
The Clean Car Act forces Maryland auto dealers to sell only cars that meet California emissions standards, as other states have done. O?Malley praised Howard County Del. Liz Bobo, D, for her efforts to get the Clean Car Act passed in previous years.
This was the fourth session in which Bobo had sponsored similar legislation, she said, but “I had to do very little work this year,” since the governor took it as his own initiative and testified at a hearing on the measure.
