Despite the health risks from air pollution from trash incinerators, lobbyists who have repeatedly blocked legislation that would remove trash incineration from Maryland’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards also lobby on behalf of dozens of health care clients, according to a review of lobbyist registration records by climate group F Minus. The F Minus review also finds several instances of firms who lobbied on last year’s version of an RPS reform bill (SB 146) on behalf of fossil fuel or waste-to-energy clients while simultaneously representing clients who either supported the bill or support an end to waste-to-energy projects in Maryland.
In 2024, lobbyists for the firm of Schwartz, Metz, Wise & Kauffman submitted testimony in opposition SB 146 on behalf of the National Waste & Recycling Association. The firm also represents ten health care clients including the Maryland Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which warns that ambient air pollution is a “preventable risk factor” for a range of pediatric health problems. The firm also represents the City of Rockville, whose Climate Action Plan calls for diverting trash away from incinerators.
Also opposing last year’s bill was the firm of HJM on behalf of WIN Waste Innovations, whose testimony minimized the health risks from trash incineration while attributing high childhood asthma rates in Baltimore to the presence of mice in people’s homes. HJM is also registered to lobby for nine health care clients including MedChi and Johns Hopkins University, whose School of Public Health has documented the health risks from air pollution. Also representing both WIN Waste and Johns Hopkins was Deer Creek Government Affairs, whose other clients include the Irvine Nature Center and the Center for Ecosystem Recovery. Opposing the bill on behalf of ReWorld (formerly Covanta) was the firm of Capitol Strategies, which also represents six health care clients and The Children’s Guild.
Testifying in favor of SB 146 in 2024 was Baltimore’s National Aquarium, which called it “perverse” to classify trash incineration as a renewable energy source. Yet the Aquarium’s own lobbying firm of Venable LLP reported lobbying on the bill on behalf of AES Warrior Run, a coal-fired power plant that shut down in June 2024.
“It’s outrageous that lobbyists for this very dirty form of energy can turn around and promote themselves as health care champions,” said James Browning, Executive Director of F Minus. “Health care groups can put a stop to this hypocrisy by refusing to hire lobbyists who promote dirty energy.”
“Lobbyists have thwarted the common sense clean-up of Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standards for years,” said Sonia Demiray of the Climate Communications Coalition. “Incinerators continue to emit mercury, lead, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, and carbon monoxide into the air with significant consequences for the environment and public health. The fact that health care lobbyists are promoting incinerators with all of their health risks shows that our system is broken.”
The F Minus review covered lobbyists who either testified on SB 146 in 2024 or who disclosed this bill number on their activity forms filed in May 2024. In Oct. 2024, an F Minus audit of disclosures by Maryland’s fossil fuel lobbyists found widespread noncompliance with a requirement to report the numbers of the bills on which they lobbied, with a compliance rate of just 47% for 2024.