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Gas Stoves Saved: Washington Voters Reject All Electric Building Mandates

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, Energy, GHG, State
While many Americans were focused on the presidential election last Tuesday, citizens from Washington State and others interested in energy were paying attention to a successful Washington voter initiative protecting access to natural gas for homes and businesses, including preventing regulatory actions to limit access to gas in favor of all electric buildings. On November … Continue Reading

Lawsuit Against Maryland Seeks to Have First Amendment Apply to Green Power

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Energy, State
A group of energy companies are suing the State of Maryland challenging the recently enacted Senate Bill 1, which restrains truthfully marketing clean energy products including renewable electricity in the State, in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Maryland Declaration of Rights. They assert that the law imposes an unconstitutional “speech … Continue Reading

With ‘new’ proposed Maryland BEPS regulations what does a Building Owner do now?

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, GHG, greenhouse gas, State
After this blog was posted, Maryland published the Notice of Final Action for COMAR 26.28 Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS). The regulations described below will be final and effective on December 23, 2024. The Notice is available here. After this post, on September 6, 2024, the Maryland Department of the Environment announced the 2023 Building Energy Performance … Continue Reading

Low Embodied Carbon Concrete is Here

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Climate Change, ESG, GHG, State
The golden opportunity in ESG may be in concrete. Embodied carbon refers to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with materials’ manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal. In a building, there is “upfront” embodied carbon in construction and then operational carbon largely from energy consumption. Embodied carbon is particularly important because it contributes more climate changing … Continue Reading

California Appeals Board Gender Diversity Loss

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in ESG, State
Last month, the California Secretary of State appealed the decision by a California Superior Court striking down as unconstitutional California’s board diversity law, which required all publicly traded companies headquartered in the State to include a minimum number of female directors. In 2018, Women on Boards (Senate Bill 826) was signed into law to advance … Continue Reading

New Maryland Regulation all but Shuts Down Phase II Environmental Site Assessments

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Environmental, State
The Maryland Department of the Environment has adopted regulations for the first time requiring the person conducting an environmental assessment, even when they are not the owner of the property (e.g., possibly a prospective contract purchaser of land or a consultant engaged in a lending transaction) to report suspected oil to MDE immediately, but not … Continue Reading

Maryland’s New Corporate Diversity Law Violates the Equal Protection Clause

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG, State
Corporate diversity is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.  Maryland has published, for public comment, regulations implementing the corporate diversity law enacted by the legislature in 2021. But the proposed regulations are unconstitutional on their face, violating the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and Article 24 of the Maryland … Continue Reading

Maryland becomes First State to Ban Polystyrene this Thursday

By Stuart Kaplow on Posted in Codes and Regulations, Environmental, State
During the 2019 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly enacted what will be the first statewide ban of expanded polystyrene foam. In the Spring of 2019 law makers did not foresee a pandemic that would shift restaurant dining (not to mention school meals and much more) to carry out in transportable food containers, but today … Continue Reading
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