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Martin O`Malley on Energy & OilDemocrat |
No one has wanted to ask people to do more. The best remaining option in my view is to repeal the current sales tax exemption on a gallon of gasoline; phasing it out by two percent a year, with a "braking mechanism" to protect consumers in the event that the price of gas spikes. An enhanced investment on this scale would allow us to create 7,500 new jobs building needed roads, bridges, and public transit throughout our State.
Modernize Environmental Policies
National environmental policies, mostly developed in the 1970s, have been remarkably successful in improving the quality of our air and water. But we face a new set of environmental challenges for which the old strategy of centralized, command-and-control regulation is no longer effective.
The old regime of prohibitions and fines levied on polluters is not well equipped to tackle problems such as climate change, contamination of water from such sources as farm and suburban runoff, loss of open lands, and sprawl. Without relaxing our determination to maintain and enforce mandatory national standards for environmental quality, it is time to create more effective, efficient, and flexible ways of achieving those standards.
For example, a system of tradable emissions permits would give factories, power plants, and other sources of air pollution and greenhouse gases a powerful incentive not only to meet but to exceed environmental standards. Decisions about solving local environmental problems should be shifted from Washington to communities, without weakening national standards. Finally, to empower citizens and communities to make sound decisions, government should invest in improving the quality and availability of information about environmental conditions.
