Maryland: Rob Garagiola

Last month I wrote about how Governor O’Malley and his green allies are working hard to raise our energy costs. Well the Green House Gas Reduction Act of 2009 has been filed SB 278/HB 315. It aims to reduce the state’s GHG emissions 25% from 2006 levels by 2020. The Department of Environment would be tasked with producing a plan cough—cap and trade—cough. The bill exempts the state’s manufacturing base. Obviously they caved and joined the greens in passing the costs on to…us.

Section 2-102 states:

“MANUFACTURING” DOES NOT INCLUDE:
(I) ACTIVITIES THAT ARE PRIMARILY A SERVICE;

(II) ACTIVITIES THAT ARE INTELLECTUAL, ARTISTIC, OR
CLERICAL IN NATURE;

(III) PUBLIC UTILITY SERVICES, INCLUDING GAS, ELECTRIC,

So energy production, in particular electricity, is not excluded.