by Jbs051409 JG — May 15, 2009—Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has approved a legislative package, House Bill 315 (.pdf file), that includes a requirement for the state to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 25 percent below 2006 levels by 2020, according to a newsletter from the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Act of 2009 places the burden on the Maryland Department of Environment to concoct a plan for achieving the emissions reduction. The department has until mid-2011 to establish an inventory of statewide GHG emissions for 2006 and for projecting the GHG emissions in 2020 under a “business as usual” scenario, and then it has until the end of that year to adopt a plan for achieving the emissions target.
However, in the absence of new federal laws or regulations for reducing GHG emissions, state agencies cannot require GHG reductions from the state’s manufacturing sector, nor can they cause a significant increase in costs for the state’s manufacturing sector, notes EERE. Maryland is already a participant in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which requires the power sector to reduce its GHG emissions by 10 percent by 2018.
