Eight More Environmental Bills Signed!

On May 12 and 16, Governor Hogan signed dozens of bills, including eight that our Chapter actively supported through the Natural Places, Clean Energy, and Transportation Issue Teams:

• HB 884, which expanded protection for old growth forests in state parks, wildlife management areas, and natural resource management areas.
• HB 784, which directs the Department of Natural Resources to delineate and protect irreplaceable natural areas in lands under its management.
• HB 76, which provides a property tax exemption for community solar projects.
• SB 146/HB 157, which provides penalties for parking a non-plug-in vehicle in a charging space reserved for plug-in electric vehicles.
• HB 10/SB 61, which requires the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) to provide safety and workforce development training for its operations and maintenance workforces, along with reasonable worker protections as MTA transitions to a zero-emission state bus fleet.
• HB 53, which imposes a prohibition on the vehicles that can be driven in a dedicated bus lane and authorizes Baltimore to use a monitoring system to promote compliance. 
• HB 706/SB 630, which establishes an Office of Resilience within the Maryland Department of Emergency Management to promote pre-disaster mitigation statewide.

We thank the sponsors of these bills, the committees of jurisdiction, members in both the House of Delegates and Senate, and the Governor for their support in enacting these bills.  And, of course, we thank the volunteers from across our membership who wrote testimony and communicated with the General Assembly and Governor on the importance of these bills.