Thursday, April 11, 2019

Some news from Maryland


If you hadn't heard, the Speaker of the House of Delegates in Maryland, Michael E. Busch, died due to prostate cancer a few days ago.  He also died near the end of the session, and some of the causes he cared about were the subject of legislation.

Md. lawmakers boost oyster sanctuaries, renewable energy; overhaul UMMS board

One of the things they did was to override a veto of a bill to create oyster sanctuaries in the Chesapeake Bay.  Not only would this be good for oysters, but over time (unfortunately, over quite a bit of time), bigger and healthier oyster populations will improve the Bay's water quality and probably the habitat for many different kinds of fish that live there.

As you'll see below, watermen (who harvest oysters) said the sanctuary bill would be bad for business.  Well, forgive me for saying so, but having no oysters in the Bay would be bad for business, too. 

A quoted excerpt is below:
"Environmentalists heralded the sanctuary bill as key to helping revive the bay, but watermen said it would jeopardize their livelihood. Republican lawmakers were muted in their criticism of the measure in deference to Busch, who led the chamber for 13 years.

The Democratic-majority General Assembly also voted to require that 50 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources ..."

About that last part ... sure wish they included nuclear energy, because we DO have a working nuclear power plant in this state, one that has operated with very few problems.  But the energy sector is currently fascinated with solar and wind -- and yet they haven't thought much about my remarkably useful idea to put solar panel farms over parking lots.  Search this blog for "PLUGS-In". 



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