Protecting Maryland the Beautiful

Fourteen Democrats hold the fate of Maryland’s Wildland Preservation System in their hands this week. SB0399 pre-authorizes the construction of a new transmission line in three Chesapeake Bay watershed Wildlands in western Maryland and hands the future fate of these most protected oases of nature to the Public Service Commission.

Passage of this bill would not only allow this violation of state law and regulation but would create a new pathway for changing boundaries, creating exceptions, and allowing industrial development in any Wildland in the state from here forward. The effort to molest these sacred places is under the leadership of Charles County Delegate CT Wilson(D), House Economic Matters committee chair, who made a mockery out of the March 6th hearing on HB1270 (sister bill to SB0399) chatting with the sponsor about his military record and allowing a 35-minute presentation from the proponents full of misinformation and outright lies while shutting down the opposition to less than 4 minutes with no questions.

“In all fairness, we do have people who are NOT in favor of this.”

The understatement of the year was made by Hinebaugh in response to Delegate Pippy’s comment comparing the MARL transmission line to the catastrophic Piedmont line in Frederick and Carroll counties, stating, “In all fairness, we do have people who are NOT in favor of this.”

Opposition testimony was 4 to 1 against this bill, including leading conservation organizations like the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, Mid-Atlantic Audubon, Maryland Ornithological Society, Chesapeake Conservancy, Potomac Riverkeepers, Maryland Native Plant Society, and others representing thousands of citizens, oppose these bills. Local citizen groups Engage Mountain Maryland, the Garrett County Forestry Board, members of the Savage River SF Advisory Board, faculty at the Appalachian Environmental Lab, farmers, transplants, and natives of the region, both Republican and Democrat object, but the Democrats on this Committee are deaf to their words.

Maryland DNR has taken no position but hastily organized a public meeting in Garrett County where 150 locals attended. Secretary Kurtz himself heard the public outrage at this bill where a 175-person petition objecting to this violation of public trust was hand delivered. Yet the Democrats hide behind the doors of Economic Matters chambers and vote to undo 50 years of conservation history. Where is their commitment to Maryland the Beautiful now?

Contributed by Steve Storck