Maryland Uses Federal Stimulus Money for the Environment
The Maryland government is almost $120 million of the money they are receiving from the American stimulus package toward environmental efforts in Maryland. This is on top of the billions of dollars being spent on renewable energy by the stimulus package. The biggest portion of the funds are being used to fund increasing the water quality of Maryland ’s drinking water, creating hundreds of new jobs and and contribute towards restoring the Chesapeake Bay. The Maryland Department of the Environment or MDE will be in control of distributing the remainder of their funds as described by MDE’s press secretary:
After receiving a flood of applications for this funding from around the state, we’ve worked to ensure that environmental benefits and job creation are maximized in every region of the state.
This money will really take some of the pressure off of local county governments in Maryland to provide money they really don’t have to fund water and sewer system upgrades. I just wanted to showcase this effort by Maryland to put more of the money received from the stimulus package towards local environmental efforts. I hope other states take similar actions to really take advantage of the funds by providing them to important efforts like the enviornment.
Comments
That is good to hear and I hope more states follow suit.
Obama set some pretty high goals in his inauguration speech in regards to energy independence. It is nice to see some of these being acted upon in the stimulus package, such as the billions spend on renewable energy, although I still think there are some fundamental problems with how congress is trying to solve our current economic situation.
I hope the govener of Utah reads this blog, because they need to follow the example set here by Maryland. With all of the AIG mumbo jumbo and how they spent their money this is refreshing.