Baltimore, MD – August 5, dozens of Maryland residents joined health and clean air advocates to demand strong public health protections at a meeting of the Air Quality Control Advisory Council, during which the Council shockingly voted to support a new air quality plan from Governor Larry Hogan’s administration that significantly weakens protections previously finalized under the O’Malley’s administration. Representatives from the offices of Senator Paul Pinsky, Senator Roger Manno and Delegate Dana Stein also gave testimony supporting the original air quality plan, which would require cleanup of each coal unit in Maryland to protect public health.
As one his first acts in office in January, Governor Hogan blocked publication of former Governor O’Malley’s clean air protections igniting fierce criticism from public health, community and environmental groups. Now, seven months later, Governor Hogan’s Maryland Department of Environment (MDE) is proposing an inadequate and dramatically weakened fix to Maryland’s deepening air pollution crisis. Despite the administration’s promise that their new pollution requirements would “provide equal or greater public health protections” the new proposal from the Governor would result up to 35 percent more smog-forming pollution on peak days than the existing protections–the days when this pollution does the most harm.
“At the behest of a single polluter – New Jersey-based NRG Energy – Governor Hogan is attempting to gut vital and common sense clean air protections for Maryland families previously adopted by the Maryland Department of the Environment,” said David Smedick, Campaign Representative with the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign in Maryland. “We’re disappointed in the Air Quality Control Advisory Council’s vote today, and the lack of public process that has surrounded the weakened version of these rules. Clean air is not a chip on a table to be gambled away. We’ll continue fighting to bring the air quality plan back to it’s original strength, which was supported by many diverse stakeholders across Maryland, including doctors, public health officials, and even the owner of three of our largest coal plants.”
The Baltimore and metro DC areas are home to seven coal-fired power plants, which are responsible for a significant fraction of the State’s smog-forming pollution. Smog pollution from power plants and tailpipe emissions trigger respiratory problems like asthma attacks and cardiovascular problems. Physicians compare being outside on bad air days to getting a sunburn on your lungs. Eighty-four percent of Marylanders–more than 5 million people–live in counties that received a D or F smog grade from the American Lung Association in their most recent State of the Air report. The Baltimore area in particular has long recorded some of the worst air quality in the Eastern U.S.
Just four days before, a similar group of advocates take a kayak trip around the C.P. Crane plant to learn how Maryland’s coal plants are polluting the air and making Maryland families sick.
“We took to the water near the C.P. Crane coal plant both to learn about the pollution associated with coal, but to also draw attention to the broken promise of the Hogan administration,” said Kevin Kreischer, clean air advocate from Baltimore, Md. who joined the kayak trip to the C.P. Crane coal plant. “Governor Hogan needs to put Maryland’s health first, not the profits of polluters unwilling to clean up.”