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Maryland LCV Action Network - Call to Action

University of Maryland Environmental Law Center

Issue

Withdrawing Funding from UMD Environmental Law Center and Adding Strings

Background

Because of the horrible water quality around Perdue's chicken farms, the University of Maryland Law Clinic is representing clients who are suing to stop these extreme water violations.

Now state lawmakers are threatening to withhold funding from the school.

It is outrageous that legislators are putting Perdue's interests over the impartiality and prestige that define the University of Maryland. Tell them to stop.

Take action! <a href="http://mdlcv.e-actionmax.com/takeaction.asp?aaid=4616">http://mdlcv.e-actionmax.com/takeaction.asp?aaid=4616</a>;
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Md. Senate - We want chicken $hit in the bay

I believe no industry has the right to dispose of waste as cheaply as possible especially if there is environmental damage to our natural resources. I realize that chicken farms and Perdue are big industry on the eastern shore but still there has to be some limits on what they can do. But it is outrageous that the Senate is essentially threatening University of Maryland's environmental law clinic because of their law suit alleging that waste running off a farm near Berlin, Md is fouling the Pocomoke River.

"... but it's still a pretty big abridgment of academic freedom," Frosh said Friday. He said the language amounted to a threat: "If you guys are getting involved in issues that we don't like, or you're bothering people that we do like, we want you to shut up."

If what's going on is against the law then the Senate's reaction is shameful. If it is someone we like then arbitrate to get the problem fixed and maintain good relations we should never let our law makers make laws so the privileged few can break laws.

You can read the article here.

If you want a better understanding of my anti-factory farms stance then watch the attached video. But warning once you understand the issues it may be hard to eat meat again.

The Meatrix
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The Do-Nothing Energy Tax: $3 Gasoline Dead Ahead

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By Daniel J. Weiss, a Senior Fellow and the Director of Climate Strategy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

The mounds of snow blackened by auto exhaust have barely melted in Washington, D.C, yet the Energy Information Administration’s Short Term Energy Outlook already predicts that average gas prices “will exceed $3 per gallon” in coming months:
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Higher gasoline prices are like a tax on consumers – they pay more for the same amount of product, with the additional funds enriching big oil companies and foreign oil suppliers.

Since one of every four barrels of oil comes from nations that the State Department classifies as “dangerous or unstable,” more oil consumption and higher prices further enriches these states. And a $1 increase in oil prices provides an additional $1 billion dollars to the Iranian government – even though the U.S. buys no oil from it. This can only help Iran incite unrest and attacks in Iraq and elsewhere.

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Don’t buy Obama’s greenwashing of nuclear power

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President Obama has justified his proposed $55 billion in taxpayer-backed loan guarantees for new nuclear reactors by misrepresenting nuclear reactors as the largest &quot;carbon-free&quot; energy source in the United States. That's like saying McDonald's should be put in charge of a nationwide obesity campaign because it's the largest restaurant in the U.S. that sells salads.
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Who regulates the regulators?

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If Congress succeeds in blocking the EPA from following through on a Supreme Court mandate to regulate emissions,
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... climate legislation continues to lose momentum in the Senate, giving more political ammunition to lawmakers and industry representatives who seek to stall the process.

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Rant: Baltimore's Green Building Loop Hole? Parking lots!

Anyone building or renovating a 10,000 sf building must conform to the City's green building and energy requirements. However, anyone demolishing and constructing a parking lot is not subject to the regulations. It appears that the regulations are encouraging demolition of existing buildings and replacing them with cheap, non-environmentally friendly parking lots. 

If we are to encourage sustainable, environmentally-friendly development, we must include at-grade parking in the green legislation. 

It is in the City's interest that underutilized buildings and parking lots find their way to become inhabited, revenue producing buildings. The Tower Building (a former landmark building located at Baltimore and Guilford) and the McCormick Spice building (the baseline Marty Milspaugh used for the planning of the Inner Harbor) sites remain at-grade parking to this day after decades of waiting for the right time for development. 

  A parking lot can be designed to contribute to the environmental quality and energy efficiency of the city. An environmental parking lot might include: pervious paving; internal landscaping; bioretention; bicycle parking; solar recharging for alternative vehicles; assigned parking for alternative vehicles; solar panels to power the lighting; green roofs to treat rainwater prior to its converging with the oil and particulates on the paving reducing the need for underground treatment, and green canopies to reduce the heat island effect and create bio habitats.


If you agree, please add your comment to this blog to be forwarded to City Councilman Jim Kraft.

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Tired of business not shoveling there sidewalks? Here's an interesting idea:

Like most Washingtonians, I'm sick of trudging over the snow. I'm especially tired of walking over increasingly icy sidewalks that should have been shoveled by the adjacent property owners. It is, after all, required by law that all sidewalks be cleared within eight hours of final snowfall.

But rather than complain, shame them in a listserv they'll never read, demand government assistance, or report them to the government, some Tenleytowners are going to just clear the snow for the public good. In doing so, we will make the area safer for residents and name the businesses that failed in their legal and civic responsibility.

Jon Bender and I are organizing the First Tenleytown Volunteer Snow Removal Battalion. At 4 pm this afternoon 3 pm tomorrow, we will go forth from the Tenleytown Metro entrance to destroy the slush piles. We will clear paths through sidewalks swamped by plowed snow, unusable bus stops, several elderly residents, and even a few frontages untouched by those responsible for them.

To prevent any businesses from taking advantage of our labor, we will post &quot;You're Welcome&quot; posters on the windows of miscreants and publish names and photographs of them online. I hope that residents will participate in a brief boycott of listed organizations.

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Industrial-Strength Fungus

Industrial-Strength Fungus
By Adam Fisher

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Mycelium doesn't taste very good, but once it's dried, it has some remarkable properties. It's nontoxic, fireproof and mold- and water-resistant, and it traps more heat than fiberglass insulation. It's also stronger, pound for pound, than concrete. In December, Ross completed what is believed to be the first structure made entirely of mushroom. (Sorry, the homes in the fictional Smurf village don't count.) The 500 bricks he grew at Far West Fungi were so sturdy that he destroyed many a metal file and saw blade in shaping the 'shrooms into an archway 6 ft. (1.8 m) high and 6 ft. wide. Dubbed Mycotectural Alpha, it is currently on display at a gallery in Germany.

Nutty as &quot;mycotecture&quot; sounds, Ross may be onto something bigger than an art project. A promising start-up named Ecovative is building a 10,000-sq.-ft. (about 930 sq m) myco-factory in Green Island, N.Y. &quot;We see this as a whole new material, a woodlike equivalent to plastic,&quot; says CEO Eben Bayer. The three-year-old company has been awarded grants from the EPA and the National Science Foundation, as well as the Department of Agriculture--because its mushrooms feast on empty seed husks from rice or cotton. &quot;You can't even feed it to animals,&quot; says Bayer of this kind of agricultural waste. &quot;It's basically trash.&quot;

After the husks are cooked, sprayed with water and myco-vitamins and seeded with mushroom spores, the mixture is poured into a mold of the desired shape and left to grow in a dark warehouse. A week or two later, the finished product is popped out and the material rendered biologically inert. The company's first product, a green alternative to Styrofoam, is taking on the packaging industry. Called Ecocradle, it is set to be shipped around a yet-to-be-disclosed consumer item this spring.
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