Posted under Politics
Yesterday marked the end of the legislative session. Today, Gov. Martin O’Malley signed 150 pieces of legislation, most notably an emergency bill “giving the state eminent domain rights over the cherished Preakness Stakes horse race.” O’Malley also signed legislation that “would make people who had worked at least 20 hours per week eligible for unemployment benefits.”
The session was mostly a success for O’Malley and his agenda, with a couple notable exceptions. O’Malley failed to abolish the death penalty in Maryland, although new restrictions were enacted. Another O’Malley initative that would “give state regulators new tools to order new power plants” was killed in the House. O’Malley vowed to bring the bill back up next session.
Action on energy policy is needed quickly, since the status quo will lead to rolling blackouts in Maryland by 2011. Whether through O’Malley’s legislation or another avenue, the state desperately needs new, clean generation sources and transmission capacity.
Now that the legislative session has ended, the “Morning Line” feature will be on hiatus. I’ll spend more time here going in depth into issues impacting our state.
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