Legum’s New Line

Yesterday, I went on a cruise of the West and Rhode rivers in Maryland to celebrate the release of Prof. Howard Ernst’s new book, Fight for the Chesapeake Bay.

Below is a brief exceprt from a conversation with Howard I recorded on the boat. He reveals how he answered a question you wish didn’t need asking — What’s cleaner: used toilet water or the Chesapeake Bay? Watch it:

In his book, Ernst explains why after 25 years and $6 billion dollars the Bay is worse than ever. Worse, in some cases, than your toilet (particularly after it rains).

One of the reason is there has been a failure to create real enforceable standards for water quality across all the states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, which includes not just Maryland and Virginia but also Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

That could change soon, thanks to a bill introduced last week by Sen. Ben Cardin and Congressman Elijah Cummings. The bill, called “The Chesapeake Bay Clean Water and Ecosystem Restoration Act,” would require all states to bring the pollution they contribute to the Bay under acceptable levels, called the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), by 2025. States that fail to do so would be subject to substantial penalties, including loss of federal funds by the EPA.

This is the kind of bold action necessary to turn the Bay around.

You can contact your members of Congress and urge them to support the bill now.

Cross-posted at HuffPost.

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There are 12 days until the city election in Annapolis.

In today’s paper, we learned mayoral candidate and current member of the City Council Dave Cordle is introducing legislation that would cap property taxes in the city. A few days ago, Cordle introduced three other bills, including a bill to create a Council-Manger form of government, even though he was the deciding vote against virtually identical legislation earlier this year.

Cordle has been on the City Council for 8 years. He could have made these proposals at any time and did not. Why now?

Cordle may feel he needs to make up for lost time. According to the minutes on the City Council website, Cordle has missed 16 council meetings during his tenure – more than 10% of the total and more than any other member of the council during the same period of time. (Our outgoing mayor, Ellen Moyer, has the second most missed meetings with 12.)

There will be a new mayor and a new council in place the first week of December. If Dave Cordle is introducing these last-minute items to help him win an election, it’s the wrong thing to do. The City Council should be a place for serious, thoughtful and deliberate debate about the issues that face Annapolis.

Disclosure: I volunteer for Josh Cohen’s mayoral campaign.

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Naval Academy Professor Howard Ernst’s first book, Chesapeake Bay Blues, was a remarkably prescient critique of the politics of cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. In the book, written in 2003, Ernst argued that not nearly enough was being done to make meaningful progress cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. Five years later, the front pages of newspapers around the country confirmed that he was right.

Now Ernst is back with a follow-up volume, The Fight for the Bay, which focuses on what needs to be done politically to restore the Bay to health. The Capital provides a preview:

…Ernst packs in analysis of how environmentalists, politicians and journalists have failed the bay, and how they can make a difference. It wraps up with essays from environmentalists recalling some of their biggest struggles to help the bay.

Ernst, who teaches political science at the Naval Academy, argues that politicians and environmentalists are too quick to compromise, adopting what he calls a “light green” mentality…

Politicians often fall into light-green mode, passing compromised bills that don’t do much, Ernst said.

I haven’t read his new book yet, but plan to pick up a copy at a book party aboard the Richard Lee this Saturday night in Shady Side, MD. You can find info on the event here.

If you can’t make it, pick up a copy online.

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A somewhat surprising result from a new survey: despite the deep economic downturn, Marylanders still overwhelmingly favor public financing of campaigns. The Baltimore Sun summarizes a new survey by Gonzales research:

According to the survey of 833 registered voters, 77 percent believe that large political contributions have a corrupting influence on state lawmakers and worry that the money prevents them from from tackling issues such as rising energy costs and protecting the Chesapeake Bay.

Seventy percent of respondents favor using a limited amount of public money to pay for political campaigns. What’s more, 63 percent of the respondents say that they would like to see public campaign financing even in the face of a state budget deficit.

Public financing nearly became law last session after Senate President (and longtime public financing foe) Mike Miller signed on to support the legislation.

In the absence of public financing, I’ve pledged not to accept money from Maryland lobbyists or PACs in my campaign for delegate.

You can read the full survey here.

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Maryland is facing a severe energy shortage which could lead to rolling blackouts by 2011 or 2012. Over the coming years, the state will need to invest in new generation and transmission capacity. The easiest and cheapest way, however, to meet our future energy needs is to decrease our consumption. For consumers and businesses, this has the added benefit in decreasing utility bills.

BGE has launched an interesting new online tool that allows you “to build a virtual model of your home, see how your home uses energy, and learn about ways to reduce your energy consumption.”

You can try it out for yourself here.

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