ANNAPOLIS – Environmentalists were reserved in their opinion of Kendl Philbrick, who Gov. Robert Ehrlich nominated Friday for secretary of the Department of the Environment.
“I think it’s a good nomination,” said Sen. Donald Munson, R-Washington. “I am finding him to be environmentally concerned (and) I am optimistic that his nomination will go through.”
Philbrick, former executive vice president of LMC Properties Inc., has been the acting director of the department since last spring.
Susan Brown, executive director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, was less enthusiastic, admonishing the Senate to closely scrutinize Philbrick’s credentials.
“This is an important position,” she said, “and this is a missed opportunity for the government to appoint someone with the environmental experience needed.”
Ehrlich had threatened to make Philbrick the nominee since the Maryland Senate’s rejection of the governor’s first choice, Lynn Buhl, a Michigan administrator, last year.
“The governor using him as threat did not help Mr. Philbrick,” said Sen. Brian Frosh, D-Montgomery.
But, Frosh said, Philbrick had not “disqualified himself” and he would judge the nominee on his own merit.
Brown said the environmental community would monitor the acting chief as their initiatives moved through the legislative process.
She and other conservationists jumped into the legislative session last week: pushing for mass transit projects, energy efficiency and sewage treatment plants improvements and offering solutions to the state’s $800 million fiscal shortfall.
But their agenda may be a tough sell, warned Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, despite the passage of desired energy efficiency standards legislation early this session.
“We’ve got a tough road to hoe with this administration,” Miller said.
The governor’s proposed “flush tax” bill received favorable reviews, however. The $2.50 per customer per month tax would generate funds to upgrade Maryland’s 66 largest sewage treatment plants.
But procuring finances remained the top priority as figures from the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environment showed annual environmental spending in the state decreased by more than $154 million between 2002 and 2004.
“Frankly,” said Brown, “the environment can be damaged significantly through the budget process.”
The network of groups offered an environmentally sensitive suite of 11 solutions to cut spending and increase revenues by about $145 million in its “Greening the Budget” report.
Chairwoman of the Senate’s Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee Paula C. Hollinger, D-Baltimore County, said the ideas were worthy of examination.
“I give the environmental consortium credit for getting together in a tight budget year and coming up with ways to not only help the environment but help us deal with the budget,” she said.
The proposed measures included closing tax loopholes; ending hidden subsidies by making corporations, not taxpayers, underwrite the costs of pollution; and eliminating Ehrlich’s proposed $1.7 billion Inter-county Connector, planned to connect Interstates 95 and 270.
“I don’t anticipate that the governor will agree that the ICC is something that will be taken off the legislative agenda,” Brown said, though the project was not included on a preview of Ehrlich’s legislative initiatives.
Conservationists deemed the 18-mile highway “wasteful” and instead plan to lobby for the development of the Purple Line, an addition to the Metro system that will run parallel to the Capital Beltway between Bethesda and New Carrollton, and of the Baltimore Rail Plan.
Energy conservation also remained a leading concern.
House Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Anne Arundel, invited legislators to make the environment a “non-partisan issue,” and announced plans to offer renewable portfolio standards legislation.
“We believe the energy efficiency policies should be put in place as soon as possible,” he said.
It is not yet clear how Philbrick’s nomination will factor in the progress of these environmental initiatives, and it may not yet be a matter of concern.
“It’s at the point where we’re focusing our energy on the very important legislation on the agenda and not on the issue of appointments,” said Theresa Pierno, a vice president at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “That will really sideline our energies.”