Commentary

Last week The Baltimore Sun and WMAR 2 News reported an unprecedented number of animals being surrendered to local animal shelters because of the rapid rise in evictions. A record-setting 828 pets arrived at the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter in January alone. With approximately 72% of Maryland renters having companion animals and many being challenged with housing insecurities the traumatic additional loss of their pet could be remedied with the passage of HB102/SB279.

By at least one calculation, Maryland is at least 120,000 housing units short for its current population, which makes finding accommodations suitable for seniors even more challenging and costly than it typically is. Given the “graying” of the population — about 22.6% of Marylanders are age 60 or older — this is a potential crisis in the making. One possible solution would be to give homeowners the right to create what is known as “accessory dwelling units” on their land. These can be in-law apartments that are attached to existing homes or small detached dwelling units such as a garage or carriage house.

As the founder of Safe Silver Spring and president from 2009-2017, I have been very concerned with the recent rise in serious crime in Silver Spring this past two years. Between 2020 and 2022, Montgomery County experienced a significant increase in serious crime countywide, but especially in Downtown Silver Spring. Between 2020 and 2022, violent crime increased countywide by 21% and increased by over 30% in Downtown Silver Spring.

Recent reports on the current overall health of the Chesapeake Bay are not good. The recently released Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s 2022 State of the Bay Report gave the overall health of the Bay a D+ grade (unchanged from the D+ grade in their 2020 report). Following the release of the CBF’s 2022 report a headline for a recent news article was “Despite cleanup efforts, the Chesapeake Bay remains a pollution challenge.”

To his credit, Gov. Wes Moore has set remarkably ambitious goals for the state. Among those are having Maryland generate 100% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2035. Even that is on the low end of what he says he wants to achieve: He’s argued that Maryland should become a net producer of alternative energy. These are laudable goals. The tricky part, however, isn’t why we must meet these goals. Just a few blocks from the State House, after all, the U.S. Naval Academy is reportedly spending $37 million on a sea wall to protect from sea level rise.

The March 10 commentary “More than consumer choice” amplifies several false or unsupported myths the fossil fuel industry is propagating to preserve the status quo, to the detriment of Maryland’s consumers and the state’s achievement of its climate goals. What the petroleum distributors don’t mention is that electric technologies are outperforming fossil technologies and provide the least-cost path for reaching state climate policy goals, according to technical analyses performed for the Maryland Commission on Climate Change and for my office — the statutory representative of Maryland’s utility customers.