Environment Maryland

Wildlife Over Waste

Every day, Americans throw away hundreds of millions of plastic bags, containers and other single-use items. It’s creating an environmental disaster for ocean wildlife: plastic and other marine debris kills millions of sea turtles, sea birds and marine mammals every year who mistake it for food.

Nothing we use for a few minutes should be allowed to pollute our rivers, lakes, and oceans for hundreds of years.

Plastics and Packaging Reduction Act 

Bans plastic bags and institutes a price floor on other bags, including paper. Establishes a working group to study current management of single-use products and to make recommendations regarding process, infrastructure and policy to address plastic and single-use container waste throughout Maryland.

Delegate Brooke Lierman and Senator Malcom Augustine – HB 209/SB 313

A ban on plastic straws 

Bans single-use plastic straws.

Delegate Sara Love – HB 296

A ban on single-use plastic toiletry bottles in hotels 

Requires hotels to stop providing single-use toiletry containers, and encourages switching to sustainable alternatives like bulk containers.

Delegate Sara Love – HB 354

Save the Bay 

The Chesapeake Bay is a defining feature of Maryland and a national treasure. Home to bald eagles and blue crabs, the Bay is our nation’s largest estuary. It is also a beautiful place to visit, with millions coming to hike, fish, boat, or swim every year.

We’ve made progress in cleaning up the Bay, but that progress is at risk as the state allows new sources of pollution to expand.

Moratorium on Factory Farms 

We’ll never see an end to toxic algae, fish kills, or the dead zone if we allow more pollution into the Bay. That’s why we are calling for a moratorium on new and expanding factory farms in Maryland until the dead zone in the Chesapeake Bay is gone.

Delegate Vaughn Stewart and Senator Clarence Lam – HB 1312/SB 841

Global Warming Solutions

We still have some time to stave off the worst impacts of global warming, and we know exactly what we need to do: act quickly and boldly to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Climate Solutions Act

Improves upon Maryland’s draft climate plan and sets more rigorous and progressive goals for reducing emissions and mitigating climate change.

Senator Paul Pinsky and Delegate Dana Stein SB 926/HB1425

Clean, Green Renewable Energy

We should conserve more, use the energy we have more wisely and efficiently, and rely only on sources of energy that are clean, renewable and tread lightly on the planet. We support concrete steps to move us closer to the world we want to live in.

Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard

Removes trash incineration from our state’s renewable energy portfolio, and ensures that renewable energy subsidies cannot be applied to energy created through incineration.

Delegate Nick Mosby and Senator Michael Hough – HB438/SB560

Clean Water and Air

Marylanders need clean air to breathe and clean water to drink.

Ban Chlorpyrifos

We support a bill to ban the use of the toxic insecticide chlorpyrifos.

Senator Lam and Delegate Dana Stein – HB 229/SB 300

Get the Lead Out

Lead is a potent neurotoxin that affects how our children develop, learn, and behave. Across Maryland, testing is revealing lead in the drinking water in our schools. This bill strengthens protections for lead in school drinking water.

Senator McCray and Delegate Solomon – SB992/HB1475 / Senator Carter and Delegate Rosenberg – SB371/HB457

Environmental Rights Amendment

We support the addition of an environmental rights amendment to our state’s Declaration of Rights that ensures our right to clean water, clean air, a healthy environment and a stable climate.

Delegate Vaughn Stewart – HB 517