The Environment in Focus

Last week, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, vetoed 38 bills passed in March by the Democratic-majority General Assembly. The governor explained that the economic crash caused by the coronavirus had opened up a massive state budget deficit which made the new proposals– including for increased funding for public schools – suddenly unaffordable.

However, at least one of the bills Hogan vetoed had absolutely nothing to do with state funds or the coronavirus.

That was Senate Bill 300, which would have outlawed the use of a pesticide called chlorpyrifos that researchers have concluded can cause brain damage in children and kill aquatic life in the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere.

Farmers spray thousands of pounds of chlorpyrifos every year to kill insects that damage corn, fruit trees, and cotton crops.

EPA banned the indoor use of the pesticide in 2000, but the Trump Administration in 2017 decided against expanding that protection to farms and other outdoor locations.

Dr. Clarence Lam is a public health policy expert at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a Democratic state senator from Howard County who co-sponsored Maryland’s state ban on the insecticide.

“I was disappointed by the veto, because I think this is important legislation to help protect our children and those who are growing up in our state from these kinds of neurological disorders,” said Lam. “I think the science is very clear that this chemical is harmful.”

The Hogan Administration declined to be interviewed. But the governor signed a letter with the veto that said the law was unnecessary, because the administration imposed regulations in April that will effectively prohibit the chemical’s use by the end of 2021.

The governor’s letter said in part: “Following discussions earlier this year with agricultural leaders, farmers and legislators, the Maryland Department of Agriculture crafted reasonable and responsible regulations to phase out all use of chlorpyrifos.”

Ruth Berlin is Executive Director of the Maryland Pesticide Network. She said that Hogan’s substitution of weaker regulations for a stronger law banning the pesticide was, in essence, a political trick. It’s a way of replacing permanent legal action with temporary rules that the governor can alter or weaken at any time. Hogan’s regulations will be administered by a state agency, the Maryland Department of Agriculture, or MDA, that has a mission to promote the agricultural industry, not public health. Over the last quarter century, MDA has opposed every single bill designed to limit or control the use of pesticides, Berlin said.

“The truth is, the governor’s veto, puts the MDA – which is the fox guarding the hen house,” Berlin said. “So we know that this will turn into pretty much nothing of use because they have a dismal record. Truly.”

A spokesman for MDA, Jason Schellhardt, did not dispute Berlin’s statement that his agency has opposed all state legislation to control the use of pesticides. But he said in an email: “The department typically would not support legislation that takes regulatory authority away from the science-based review process established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which sets the national standard on pesticide regulations.”

Berlin said the chlorpyrifos ban issue will resurface again in the next General Assembly session. “We are going to push for a veto override, and we feel optimistic about those chances,” she said.

The chlorpyrifos ban legislation passed the Maryland Senate by a vote of 31 to 14; and the House 94 to 37. Both were above the two-thirds majority that would allow a veto override when the General Assembly reconvenes in January.

So…. what’s behind all this maneuvering?

Much of this is about the politics of regulation. It’s also about power of the farm lobby, which – like the modern Republican party -- strongly opposes all laws and rules that might hurt the profits of industry – in this case, farmers or chemical manufacturers.

This profit concern was aired by – among others -- Riley Titus, chief lobbyist for a pesticide industry lobbying group called Crop Life America.

“Eliminating this product would remove an invaluable tool for farmers and cause future threats to food security here in the state,” Titus said while testifying against Maryland’s ban on Chlorpyrifos. “The cost to commodity producers would be impactful.”

There is no question that farmers and golf course owners could earn more money if they could spray whatever chemicals they wanted. But it is important to remember there are costs on the other side of the ledger, too: the secret and incalculable costs of lowered IQ’s and neurological damage in children whose mothers are exposed to this pesticide by simply strolling through an orchard or eating the wrong fruit while they are pregnant.

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With the number of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. seeming to decline, but unemployment soaring and the economy in free-fall, President Trump held a press conference recently to talk about a political imperative: getting capitalism off the stretcher.

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On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day last week, documentary maker Michael Moore and his longtime collaborator Jeff Gibbs released a powerful new movie called “The Planet of the Humans.” Like many Michael Moore films, itʼs highly controversial and flawed. But you should watch the movie because itʼs very well done, thought-provoking and gut- wrenching.

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How one woman's life was disrupted by CAFO's, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, which are massive, windowless, airplane hangar-like metal buildings, used to grow thousands of chickens, hogs and other livestock.

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Next Wednesday, April 22nd, is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. So even though we’re living in strange and difficult times – with the coronavirus keeping most of us at home – it is an appropriate time to take stock of how we’re treating our home, the Earth.

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The coronavirus crisis has contributed to a crash in oil prices, as people are driving less while working at home and many businesses are shut down. Competition between Saudi Arabia and Russia has also caused a glut in global oil production.

As a result, many oil and gas companies are suffering huge financial losses, laying off workers, and asking the federal government for a bailout or some kind of government assistance.

President Trump held a meeting on Friday at the White House with the CEO’s of eight major oil companies, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Phillips66.

“I just want to start by saying it’s an honor to be with you,” Trump told the executives. “I know most of you… But I know all of you by seeing you on the covers of all the business magazines and other magazines. And you’ve done a great job and we’ll work this out. And we’ll get our energy businesses back. I’m with you 1,000 percent.”

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Ventilators, of course, are medical devices that hospitals use to help patients breathe when they are suffering from pneumonia or lung failure. The goal was to save lives in case of a future global pandemic of the kind we are now experiencing with the coronavirus.

According to reporting in The New York Times, the public health project got off to a great start. The federal Department of Health and Human Services awarded a contract to a small and nimble California company called Newport Medical.

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In these times of the coronavirus, the public health strategy of “social distancing” is hard on people because humans are, by their nature, a social species.

We evolved to hunt, live, play and survive in groups. But the virus takes advantage of our evolution and spreads through groups. So we have to know our enemy and work against our very nature to save lives.

In my effort to practice an extreme form of “social distancing” – and escape the claustrophobia of working at home – I set off with my kayak and a few supplies to the most isolated place I could think of: the pathless, maze-like wilderness of rivers and marshes at the heart of the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

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Kavin Senapathy is a freelance journalist who was drawn to the field of science blogging nine years ago. It was just after her first child was born and she found herself obsessed with and terrified about her daughter’s health.

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Maryland faces a critical decision point in its decades-long effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

The poultry industry on the Eastern Shore produces about 300 million chickens a year. But the byproduct is about a half billion pounds more manure than can be absorbed by crops when farmers spread the litter as fertilizer for their corn and soybeans. That leads to runoff of phosphorus pollution into rivers, streams and the Bay.

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