2023 Maryland Legislative Debrief

When Today Friday, April 21, 2023 at 2:00pm 2 hrs

Where Virtual

Contact Antoinette M Rucker [email protected] 4434473602

Speaking Out Faithfully for Our Common Home
Debrief of 2023 Legislative Session

We are gearing up for the 2024 legislative session, which will run from January 10th to April 8th. Join us for our virtual debrief on February 4th at 2 PM to discuss the bills, policies, and initiatives that Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake and Interfaith Power and Light DMV (MD.DC.NoVA) championed throughout the legislative session. We'll explore the lessons learned, celebrate our victories, and analyze areas where we can further improve our strategies moving forward.

We'll discuss:

Climate and Environmental Equity Act - Through lack of historic oversight on preventing the aggregation of polluting industries and facilities in specific places, MD natural habitats and underserved populations are overexposed to pollution. This legislation will give the Maryland Department of the Environment the authority to approve, alter, or deny a permit based on an EJ score, and assessment of other permits and the underlying sociodemographic characteristics of the community. HB 1200 that passed in 2022 required an EJ score be included in the applications for section 1-601 permits. The Climate & Environmental Equity Act builds on this requirement to grant MDE authority to take action based on this information.
Whole Watersheds- In order to improve watershed health effectively and efficiently, a coordinated approach that maximizes return on investment from conservation funding sources is needed. This legislation will provide the direction, authority – and funding - needed to ensure this coordinated approach is informed by science and data. The bill will establish a pilot program to identify up to 5 impaired watersheds across Maryland. Watersheds selected for the program will be subject to a comprehensive planning and permitting process bringing together all relevant stakeholders to improve water quality on an expedited timeline using a variety of practices. The goal of the program is to rapidly (on a 5-7 year timeline) remove selected watersheds from the impaired waterways list.
Empower-

Meet our speakers:

DELEGATE LORIG CHARKOUDIAN, Ph.D. represents District 20 in Montgomery County in the Maryland General Assembly, where she serves on the Economic Matters Committee and is chair of the Unemployment Insurance Oversight Subcommittee. She is a strong advocate for legislation promoting environmental justice, consumer protections, economic justice, and criminal justice reform. Some of Delegate Charkoudian's past legislation include building sustainable food systems, expanding the clean energy economy, and ensuring equity in our energy policies. In addition to her role as Delegate, Lorig is the executive director of the Community Mediation Maryland. She received her PhD in Economics from Johns Hopkins University and has been honored three times as Maryland’s Top 100 Women by the Maryland Daily Record.