Earth Day Wish list

Happy Earth Day!

This time of year is always busy for my family and myself. My wife is an environmental educator and Earth week is like the Super Bowl for Environmental educators. We always attend trash pick-ups, tree plantings, festivals, garden-plantings, etc.

I want to highlight three environmental goals which I hope to achieve in the General Assembly. They may seem a little eccentric, but bear with me. In NASCAR when they want to lighten a car by a pound, they do it by shaving 1/100th of a pound from a hundred places. In order to clean the environment, we'll have to do it by shaving pollution and waster from a hundred places.

-Pass the legislation necessary to allow residents to install clean power on their properties and sell the excess power back to the grid. I know that we are in the process of doing this and that many parts of the legislation are already in place. I also know that when we get it right, green power will boom in Maryland. Because if there is money to be made, people will get on board, regardless of ideology.

-Kill sytrofoam. Either by passing a tax on the use, an outright ban, or mandating that it be recyclable. I recognize that styrofoam has value but using it to transport greasy fries from point A to point B and then placing it in a landfill for the next millenium strikes me as a poor use of resources.

-Deregulate the cemetery business to allow green funerals and create an industry that would profit by preserving open spaces. Tax embalming as it essentially pumps the deceased full of toxic chemicals which are then placed into the ground.

And for the Earth Day humbugs out there, go insulate your attic anyway, you'll get a federal tax credit.

Micromanage

Bob McWilliams' column in the April 2nd issue of the Capital highlights the type of delegate that I do not want to become.

Bad things happen. If a person causes a bad thing to happen to another person, generally you can sue. Most of the time there is already a law against it. The crime of assault includes unwanted touching of all varieties. The crime of Harassment includes non-physical conduct which is harassing all the same. Stealing is wrong.

By and large, we have our bases covered.

Bad things will still happen.

And when they do, legislators leap to the rescue to create a new law or regulation that re-states the existing law. Mr. McWilliams column mentions a few laws which were proposed this session: Not hitting bicyclists with your car doors or throwing things at them or eating, drinking or smoking while driving a car.

Newsflash: It's already a crime to hit bicyclists with your car door. And if you are eating while driving and it causes and accident, you can be found guilty of reckless driving.

I'd like to quote Mr. McWilliams, "[O]ur legislators are much too quick to repeal "everyone's" freedom in response to isolated cases of individual irresponsibility. Increasingly, we all lose a bit of our liberty as we allow the passage of endless laws in a futile effort to control people who don't really care about the law to begin with."

I would like to go to Annapolis to help prune the Maryland Code. Why have three laws when we can condense them into one? Why have one law when none is required?

It's not a sexy issue, but it is important. Legislating is not a matter of picking up the paper and picking the issue of the day. Legislating is about taking a long-term look at the State and the government and determining the best course of action for the future.

Protect the Future. Vote Chiappelli.

My Opponent

The Maryland Gazette published a piece about my opponent Delegate Dwyer on March 27th. I think the headline, which is a quote from my opponent, summarizes things nicely:

"I didn't come down here to pass bills."

Then what did you go down there for? His answer, "I came down here to do the people's work."

Which people exactly? All the people I know would like their representatives to do something. You don't pay plumbers to have positions about the leaky pipes, you pay them to fix the leak. You don't pay your mechanic to make angry speeches to your engine, you pay them to fix the problem. You don't pay your doctor to send a message to your liver, you pay them to heal the wounds. Why would you want to pay your representative to do nothing?

The paper was nice enough to interview me for the article. They did spell my name wrong (It's Chiappelli with two P's!). But they quoted me correctly:

"It's not gay marriage that is causing people to lose their homes."

When you want something done right, hire a professional.

Vote Chiappelli for Delegate.

Great Groups

Dear Citizens,

Do you have cable tv with hundreds of channels? Probably.

Do you sit down and watch every channel, every day? No.

I'm beginning to feel that way with local non-profits, community groups and local businesses. So many things are going on and there's no way that I can take part in everything.

A short list of groups that have crossed my path which I would like to honor by briefly mentioning them:
Treemendous, MD for planting trees (www.trees.maryland.gov)
Myrl Hartman with Citizenre, a local business who rents solar panels (www.jointhesolution.com/myrl)
Magothy River Association for taking care of our local waterway (www.Magothyriver.org)
Friends of Downs Park for taking care of our local park
All of the neighborhood associations that I've run across for taking care of our neighborhoods. It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.
H.O.P.E., a local non-profit that provides much needed items to the needy (www.hopeforall.us)
The local police-community relations councils for getting bad guys off the streets.

There are many strands that go into the fabric of our community. One of the perks of campaigning is the opportunity it has given me to see so many of those strands up close.

Climate Change

I recently finished Tom Friedman's book "Hot, Flat and Crowded" which is about the pressing need for a clean energy revolution.

I also recently read a letter to the editor questioning climate change.

Folks, the science is over a hundred years old. Something like 98% of scientists agree that global climate change is taking place and that humans have caused it. The differences are how fast the changes are going to come and what they are going to look like.

Clean energy and energy efficiency make sense from an economic point of view. For example, my factory and my neighbors factory both make the identical widget and we both get the same amount of money for our widgets. If I can reduce my overhead by reducing my energy costs, suddenly I make a greater profit than my neighbor. Once my renewable energy supply is online, my price for energy is fixed and not dependent on global commodity prices. Oil prices rise and oil prices drop, but the sun is forever.

In other words, you can believe that global warming is a complete myth and it still makes sense to promote clean energy and energy efficiency.

All of my posts up until now have been just words and no pictures. So for a change of pace, please enjoy



...me, wearing a sweater. Enjoy the good weather!

Clean Energy Town Hall

It seems like a lot has happened since my last post. Lot's of meetings, door-knockings, family parties, the Oscars, etc.

One of the meetings which I attended was a Clean Energy Town Hall held at North County High School. It was energizing (pun intended) to be with so many dedicated environmentalists. These were people who knew what the problem was and were working on fixing it.

For instance Dave Wooley-Wilson runs the Green Building Institute in Jessup, Maryland. This institute trains people to conduct energy audits and how to increase household energy efficiency. Energy efficiency may sound boring, but it can eliminate the need for any new power plants.

Several speakers discussed the recent initiatives to increase green power with solar credits, rebates on energy efficient appliances and the ability to choose green power. I have to confess that I just learned about my ability to choose a power provider other than BGE and I'm looking into it. My family has also been able to take advantage of the solar tax credit in 2009 with our new solar water heating system.

The current legislative focus is on passing HB522. Essentially we have different parts of the Maryland government pulling in different directions. One agency is pushing for cheap, reliable power and another agency is pushing for reducing emissions. This bill is an attempt to get all the agencies to push in the same direction.

Protect the future of clean air. Vote Chiappelli.

Right to Bear Arms

I've started knocking on doors and so far the most common issue that people have asked me about is gun control. Or more accurately, that they do not want gun control.

We have the right to bear arms. If you want to own a gun, that's your right.

People seem surprised that a Democrat would be pro-guns. To me it's an issue of freedom. Freedom from government intrusion. Some people want the right to own a gun without the government hassling them, other people want the right to free speech without the government hassling them.

As long as whatever you're doing is not harming the person or property of anyone else, then I don't see how it's the governments business.

Protect the Future, Vote Chiappelli.