Nina Smith<\/strong>, Governor’s Office: 410-533-0363<\/a> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n GOVERNOR O\u2019MALLEY\u00a0SIGNS BILLS TO PREPARE FOR IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND EXTREME WEATHER<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n ANNAPOLIS, MD (May 6, 2014)<\/strong>\u00a0—\u00a0Governor\u00a0Martin O\u2019Malley yesterday signed into law two pieces of legislation that will help the State prepare for the impacts of climate change and extreme weather in Maryland. The first, the Bay Acidification Bill, will create a Task Force to evaluate and address the effects of changing chemistry in the Chesapeake Bay and other Maryland waterways. The second, the CoastSmart Bill, will ensure the State follows standards to make safe and fiscally-wise investments when building or updating State agency structures located in vulnerable coastal areas.<\/p>\n \u201cAs severe weather events grow in size and impact, and our Bay\u2019s resources become threatened, the costs of inaction to our economy, society and environment will only grow exponentially,\u201d said\u00a0Governor O\u2019Malley<\/strong>. \u201cThis legislation helps us to get out in front of these very real, very important climate issues, and to secure the health, safety and future of our State and its citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n Underscoring the critical importance of preparing for these impacts, the\u00a0Third National Climate Assessment<\/a>, released today by the Obama Administration, confirmed that global warming is contributing to the intensity, frequency and duration of extreme weather events, including \u201csuperstorms\u201d such as Hurricane Sandy, extreme precipitation events, heat waves, and coastal flooding due to heightened sea level rise and storm surge.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Bay Acidification Bill<\/strong>\u00a0(House Bill 118) will allow for the State to devise a team, or Task Force, of State leaders, and water quality, fishery and climate experts, to address how changing Bay chemistry negatively impacts Maryland\u2019s coast and shellfish industry. The Task Force will study and assess water quality in Maryland\u2019s Chesapeake and coastal bays, and review ocean acidification studies and findings from other states. The group will then present to policymakers recommendations for monitoring and addressing acidification, and its effects on Maryland\u2019s commercial fishery and aquaculture industry by\u00a0January 1, 2015.<\/p>\n The Task Force will include DNR Secretary Joe Gill and MDE Secretary Bob Summers, or their designees along with representatives from the State\u2019s aquaculture industry, the Maryland Watermen\u2019s Association, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Coast Smart Council Bill<\/strong>\u00a0(House Bill 615) directs that all new and reconstructed State buildings be planned and built to avoid or minimize future flood damage, and creates the Coast Smart Council to oversee the state infrastructure projects. The law will ensure that the State makes safe and fiscally wise capital investments in the future by following siting and design standards for new and rebuilt State agency structures located in vulnerable areas. The bill does not affect schools, roads or local government projects, only structures built by State agencies.<\/p>\n Governor O\u2019Malley is currently serving as a member of President Obama\u2019s Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience, charged with advising the President on how federal agencies can best help states and communities understand, prepare for, and reduce the impacts of climate change. Under Governor O\u2019Malley\u2019s leadership, Maryland has\u00a0engaged in nation-leading efforts\u00a0in both addressing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing the State and its communities for the impacts of climate change.\u00a0Governor O\u2019Malley\u2019s leadership in efforts and programs such as the\u00a0Greenhouse Gas Reduction Plan<\/a>,\u00a0the\u00a0Climate Change and Coast Smart Construction Executive Order<\/a>,\u00a0Marylanders Plant Trees<\/a>,\u00a0landmark no-net loss of forest legislation<\/a>;\u00a0CoastSmart<\/a>\u00a0Communities earned him the League of Conservation Voters\u00a0Climate Change\u00a0<\/strong>Vision Award<\/a>\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MEDIA CONTACTS: Nina Smith, Governor’s Office: 410-533-0363 nina.smith@maryland.gov FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: GOVERNOR O\u2019MALLEY\u00a0SIGNS BILLS TO PREPARE FOR IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND EXTREME WEATHER \u00a0 ANNAPOLIS, MD (May 6, 2014)\u00a0—\u00a0Governor\u00a0Martin O\u2019Malley yesterday signed into law two pieces of legislation that will help the State prepare for the impacts of climate change and extreme weather in Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change-2","category-governor-omalley","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":904,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions\/904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
nina.smith@maryland.gov<\/a><\/p>\n