What isn't MD more environmentally conscious?

[Anonymous]

I'm from the West Coast where there are tons of tax incentives and programs that make it cheaper and easier to be environment friendly. I could plug my car in at tons of places. There were bigger tax rebates on Solar and programs where your electricity bill would be zero. Rain barrels to collect water for outdoor irrigation were subsidized. Trash pick up was really expensive if you went over your one small can for trash, one large recycling and one large yard waste and compacting. This created a big community of people giving and taking things off free cycle, Nextdoor, Goodwill etc. Here you can dump anything for free.

I thought that MD was super progressive?

[Anonymous]

Well, it's not. Welcome.

[Anonymous]

You can't dump anything for free. There are good listserve and freecycle communities depending on where you live.
California is a thing of its own with the worlds 5th largest economy. They can do many things smaller states can't. Progressive trends usually start in California and trickle to other states.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to MD. GFY.

[Anonymous]

Gov. Hogan sadly labelled stormwater fees as a "rain tax" and it is a disasterous decision for a state that includes as much shoreline, both bay, beach and river/lakes as MD.

County to county have different solar and stormwater policies, but there should be statewide standards, for sure.

[Anonymous]

In CA the policies, taxes, and tax incentives are aimed at both individuals and businesses. It ends up fueling other other industries because there is a bigger demand for solar. People get electric cars to get into the HOA lane to shorten commutes. Stores that have charging stations attract more customers because so many people have electric cars.

In MD it seems that anything is just aimed at businesses.

[Anonymous]

Except for Baltimore the entire state is suburban or rural.

And I wouldn't pat CA on the back too much - they are progressive on some things but struggling on housing and no one will lift a finger against their addiction to driving everywhere - the money they are spending on lightly used transit and trains would do far more to reduce carbon emissions if it was being spent in the NE instead.

Having said that there are tons of Limousine Liberals in Montgomery County - just check out the recent thread full of whining Bethesdans about the possibility they might have to pay for parking when going out for their $150 dinners. Or even get to Bethesda by some means other than driving in their cars.

[Anonymous]

MD offers a $3k state tax incentive for buying an electric vehicle, and up to $2,500 credit to install an EV charger at your house.

MD has done an excellent job bringing back aquatic life to the Chesapeake Bay. Harvest of oysters and crabs are carefully controlled to ensure the population doesn't dwindle, while still balancing the livelihoods of those in the fishing industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MD offers a $3k state tax incentive for buying an electric vehicle, and up to $2,500 credit to install an EV charger at your house.

MD has done an excellent job bringing back aquatic life to the Chesapeake Bay. Harvest of oysters and crabs are carefully controlled to ensure the population doesn't dwindle, while still balancing the livelihoods of those in the fishing industry.

Electric vehicles are better than gas vehicles but far worse than getting people out of their cars and MD is far better at building roads than transit.

And the Chesapeake Bay restoration is a mixed bag with the success of the program still very much up in the air. And one of the reasons MD has not hit targets is because of endless suburban sprawl and road building.

[Anonymous]

You can get a subsidy for your rain barrel in MoCo

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/water/rainscapes/rebates.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can get a subsidy for your rain barrel in MoCo

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/water/rainscapes/rebates.html

And the county also routinely gives away compost bins.

On the other hand the state has spent billions on road widening and also has done nothing for public transit in Baltimore and took years to make up their mind about the Purple Line and then lost a couple of more years because of liberal NIMBYs in Chevy Chase.

MD's version of being green isn't even going to make a dent in Carbon Emissions and probably won't be enough to save the Bay either.

[Anonymous]

We live in PG and get rain barrel and solar subsidies.

[Anonymous]

Because we're hypocrites. We like feel-good things like owning Priuses and recycling and paper straws and such. But when it comes to actually making significant sacrifices - taxes or actually overall lowering consumption - we whine and say it shouldn't be on us to save the world and that short term profit (oh I'm sorry, "economic competitiveness") is more important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MD offers a $3k state tax incentive for buying an electric vehicle, and up to $2,500 credit to install an EV charger at your house.

MD has done an excellent job bringing back aquatic life to the Chesapeake Bay. Harvest of oysters and crabs are carefully controlled to ensure the population doesn't dwindle, while still balancing the livelihoods of those in the fishing industry.

lol



LOL

A lot of real, important progress has been made with the Bay but let’s not get carried away here. Crab populations are extremely variable but still dangerously low and the oyster population remains at bedrock bottom levels despite a recent, fragile resurgence. We’re hardly “balancing the livelihoods of fisherman.” The locals aren’t as cute as they look from wherever you’re sitting.

OP, I have all the other things you mentioned except for plugs everywhere in PG County. But even if they’re cleaner, our electric vehicles run on coal.

[Anonymous]

I wish Maryland or at least MoCo would institute municipal compost pickup for residential customers. When I asked years ago, I was told there was no place in Maryland to bring the compost. Strains credibility a bit, I think, but I could be wrong. We do back yard composting but many do not and it limits what we can compost. I would think with China reducing its demand for recycling, it would be good to increase composting and switch to more compostable products in restaurants, etc., to the extent single use items are still in play.