State candidates discuss environment, public health
District 28 senator, delegate hopefuls participate in town hall
Eight candidates running for Charles County’s delegation to the State House in Annapolis discussed their platforms for taking care of the environment and addressing public health concerns during a public forum last week sponsored by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Charles County NAACP and the Maryland League of Conservation Voters.
Brooke Harper, CCAN’s Maryland policy director and chair of the Maryland NAACP’s environmental justice committee, moderated the f or um,
which featured questions from the audience on issues such as sprawl development, fracking and the impact of environmental policies on rural and minority populations.
Four of the 12 candidates running for District 28 delegate did not attend the forum, which took place at the College of Southern Maryland’s La Plata campus. District 28 covers most of Charles County south of the Waldorf area.
The first question addressed candidates’ positions on expanding the state’s natural gas infrastructure, including the construction of new pipelines, power plants, export terminals and compressor stations.
Republican delegate candidate Bill Dotson, who took the question first, called natural gas a necessary “bridge” between fossil fuels and renewable energy.
“There is not technology now to support 100 percent renewables, as some people would like,” Dotson said, noting that natural gas burns more cleanly than fossil fuels. “The reason we all don’t have electric cars down here tonight is because the technology is not there.”
Democratic candidates Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) and Ed Holland joined Dotson in opposing the construction of a natural gas compressor station in Bryans Road, which Dominion seeks to build to supply additional natural gas to two residential suppliers that plan to tap into the line that serves the Cove Point LNG terminal in Calvert County.
All but one of the candidates said they opposed fracking. Arthur Ellis, who is running against Sen. Thomas M. “Mac” Middleton (D-Charles) for the county’s senate seat, was the sole voice of dissent on the issue.
“I think we can’t get enough fracking,” Ellis said. “We need to do everything to get energy out of the ground without sending our servicemen and -women to die in wars overseas.”
Candidates were divided on whether Maryland could meet its goal of having 25 percent of its energy needs supplied by renewable energy sources by 2020, with half supplied by renewables by 2030.
Wilson noted that although the state was investing in renewable energy manufacturers like wind and solar, many of those are outof-state.
“We need to make sure we’re invested in Maryland as well,” Wilson said.
Wilson’s colleague Del. Edith Patterson (D-Charles) noted that last year she joined a majority of delegates in voting to override Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) veto of a renewable energy bill, but added that the state needed to take steps to protect people who receive financial assistance to pay their energy bills from rate increases that could result from an increased use of renewable sources.
“There is a price to be paid when we look at other energy sources,” Patterson said.
Middleton said that he believed the state was on track to meet the “25 by 20” goal, but agreed with Wilson that the state needed to invest more in developing a renewable industr y in the state. Otherwise, Maryland residents would pay more for not just equipment like solar panels made elsewhere, but also for renewable energy imported from other states.
“Should we be asking Maryland ratepayers to pay that?” Middleton asked.
John Leonard, who is running unopposed as the Republican candidate for District 28 senator, recalled how the HVAC industr y moved away from coolants that contributed to ozone depletion once safer alternatives could be made economically viable.
“I absolutely believe we have to do something with the information we have,” Leonard said. “And I think we have enough information right now to make things more green.”
On the question of keeping sprawl development in check in Charles County, Republican delegate candidate Tom Crawford said that it is important to keep pace with residential development by ensuring there is corresponding growth in the infrastructure that supports residents, such as stores and employment.
Dotson said that the county needed to invest more in economic development in Indian Head and the western part of Charles County, and argued that the county was outsourcing its construction jobs.
“When you go to the Lennar construction sites, the trucks are all from Virginia,” Dotson said.
During the forum, the candidates also addressed questions about traffic congestion and public transit, waste incineration and the lack of convenient access to healthy food in western Charles County.
The candidates struggled to define a clear path to wean the state’s energy producers away from coal, which is responsible for an estimated one-fifth of greenhouse gas emissions.
“Coal is not going away in the near future,” Crawford said, and suggested that the state look again at nuclear energy, which he said the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant demonstrated could be done safely.
Holland agreed that coal was “a necessary evil,” but preferred that more effort be put into renewables than into nuclear because of safety concerns.
Ellis pointed out that air pollution costs Marylanders time and money in terms of health care, heart attacks and premature deaths.
Leonard said that the transition away from coal would take time, but that in the meantime the state could introduce stricter regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants from coal-burning plants even more, and offer retraining to employees in the coal industry to help them transition to green jobs.
“It’s going to be a process, but coal is eventually going to have to go,” Leonard said.
Early voting for this year’s primary election begins Thursday, June 14. The primary election will take place on June 26.