PLEASE SIGN UP by 6pm TODAY (2/24/2025): MD Enviro Bills Need Your Support!

Your Support Needed

Please support Maryland communities by taking a moment today to register your support on two important environmental bills coming up for a hearing this Wednesday in the Maryland State Legislature.

As the Trump administration works to gut our federal environmental laws, this first bill supports local governments to have their own, more protective, clean air laws.  The second bill would stop plastics burning in the guise of “chemical recycling,” which Trump tried to deregulate in his first administration.

PLEASE SIGN UP by 6PM TODAY (Mon, 2/24) TO SUPPORT THESE TWO BILLS at the Wednesday, Feb. 26th hearing in the Maryland State General Assembly starting at 1pm:

• HB 1058 – The Emission Standards, Ambient Air Quality Standards, and Solid Waste Management – Local Authority Bill
  
  HB 1058 would strengthen the power of counties and municipal governments in Maryland to have their own air and waste laws that are more protective than the state and federal minimums.
  
• HB 1092 – The Recycling – Prohibition on the Chemical Conversion of Plastic Bill
  
  HB 1092 would ban “chemical recycling” of plastics, a toxic technology that involves burning plastics, such as is proposed by W.R. Grace in Howard County.

How to Register to Testify

To give written and/or oral testimony (which can be on Zoom or in-person), you must sign up by 6pm TODAY (2/24).  Oral testimony is limited to two minutes.  Details on how to testify are here:

https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/pubs-current/current-ent-faqs.pdf

Steps for uploading written testimony (talking points below!):

1. Sign into your MyMGA account during the Feb 24th time window.  If you don’t have an account, set one up here.  Go to Witness Signup.
2. Search (Ctrl-F to search within the page) for the bill # one at a time: HB1058 and HB1092
3. Click on the box to the left of each bill number
4. If you represent an organization, you can type in your group name in the first box.
5. Click on “–Position–” and choose “Favorable”
6. Click on “–Testimony–” and choose one of the following:
   “None” if you want to be listed as supporting the bill without speaking or submitting written testimony
   “Written” to submit written testimony, but not speak live.
   “In Person – Oral” to speak live at the hearing in Annapolis if you have no written testimony.
   “In Person – Both” to speak live at the hearing in Annapolis AND upload written testimony.
   “Virtual – Oral” to speak on Zoom if you have no written testimony.
   “Virtual – Both” to speak on Zoom AND upload written testimony.

7. If you chose “Written” or “Both,” click “Upload File(s)” on the right and follow the instructions to upload your testimony, which must be in PDF format.
8. LAST STEP! You must scroll to the top of the page and click “Save.”

You can confirm that you’re signed up by clicking on “Signed Up Items” at the top.

More Information About the Bills

HB 1058 – The Emission Standards, Ambient Air Quality Standards, and Solid Waste Management – Local Authority

This bill will clarify and correct language in current state law that will empower Marylanders to create local air pollution and waste management laws for their county/municipal jurisdictions that are more protective than federal and state minimums.  While federal and state environmental laws already authorize this, these rights have been questioned in federal courts. This bill would make state law more clear so that counties and municipalities can fulfill their duties to safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of their residents as they find necessary and appropriate.

Talking Points:

• Maryland residents need to be able to have more say in the quality of the air they breathe!
• State and federal laws already authorize local governments to set more protective local standards to address their local situations, but poor wording in state law – as minor as writing “section” instead of “subsection”  – has led some to the opposite interpretation, putting local clean air laws at risk.
• The federal Clean Air Act has authorized local clean air laws since 1970, and Maryland state law has done so since 1957!  Let’s make sure that these rights are clear.
• This authority has been on the books for over 50 years and has not resulted in chaos with tons of conflicting local laws everywhere.
• Federal environmental regulations (that the state typically follows) are under attack, and our local governments should have the power to protect their residents when the state is slow to act.
  

HB 1092 – The Recycling – Prohibition on the Chemical Conversion of Plastic

This bill will ban in Maryland facilities that use equipment to chemically convert plastics into byproducts. The plastics conversion efforts are incredibly polluting processes which create a whole new stream of waste with deleterious impacts on communities’ health and well-being. Rhode Island and Colorado have attempted to pass similar bills. Here is an excellent article describing the negative impacts of these plastic conversion sites: https://www.providencejournal.com/story/news/environment/2024/03/05/ri-advocates-want-to-ban-pyrolysis-in-the-state-saying-process-it-toxic/72840213007/ This bill would ban these sites in Maryland. Recycling of plastics is not a fix to our plastics problem.

Talking Points:

• “Chemical recycling” is not actually recycling. The products that result from “chemical recycling” are often not turned into plastic again, as the term recycling implies. A recent U.S. Department of Energy study found that pyrolysis and gasification had very low yields, with only 0.1% to 14% of the inputs turned into outputs that are suitable for reuse as plastic. An analysis conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council shows that most of the eight so-called “chemical recycling” facilities in the US are not actually recycling any plastic.
• “Chemical recycling” generates hazardous air pollution and large amounts of hazardous waste.  As noted in a July, 2022 letter signed by 35 members of Congress, “Chemical recycling facilities emit highly toxic chemicals, including benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylenes, and dioxins, many of which are linked to cancer, nervous system damage, and negative effects on reproduction and development.”
• How is it possible to burn plastic (during pyrolysis/gasification) without a flame or oxygen? Combustion does not require a visible flame (according to the Clean Air Act an incinerator is any facility that combusts solid waste material, regardless of a flame). Combustion is a chemical reaction in which carbon and oxygen combine, creating carbon dioxide and releasing energy. As for the notion that there is no oxygen present in pyrolysis and gasification units, it is simply false.
• This information was taken directly from a Center for Environmental Health (CEH) handout, found under our website page under “What Is Chemical Recycling?”