Letter from Suchitra Balachandran

Dear Fellow Climate Activists:

We are writing to let you all know that three bills will shortly be filed in the General Assembly in opposition to the Intercounty Connector.  

As you all know, transportation accounts for nearly 40% of greenhouse gas emissions in Maryland.  Within a decade or so, transportation will be the dominant source of greenhouse gas emissions in Maryland, and making the necessary reductions in this sector is going to be our biggest challenge. The last thing we need is a major highway that would:

a) cost more than $3 billion

b) not relieve congestion according to three major studies, including the state's own study

c) result in 5,000 to 20,000 acres of sprawl development

d) increase vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by 700 million miles annually, not counting the millions of additional miles of driving the sprawl probably  would generate.

1  Delegate Barbara Frush is lead sponsor on a bill to eliminate funding for the ICC.  Her bill repeals the Financing Bill passed by the General Assembly in 2005 and makes more than $2 billion available in state and federal funds and state debt capacity, which the Governor and Assembly can choose to flex to transit and other transportation needs statewide.

We have been working the legislators in Annapolis with this bill for the last couple of weeks and have 34 co-sponsors so far.  Delegates who have signed on so far are:

Anne Arundel:  Beidle, Clagett, Dwyer, Schuh
Baltimore City: Stukes
Baltimore County: Bromwell, Cardin, Impallaria, Lafferty, Nathan-Pulliam, Olszewski, Schuler, Stein
Howard County:  Bobo, Turner
Montgomery County:  Carr, Gutierrez, Heller, Kaiser, Montgomery
Prince George's County: Barnes, Healey, Holmes, Hubbard, Ivey, Niemann, Pena-Melnyk, Ramirez, Ross, Turner, Valderrama, Vaughn

We have spoken to other delegates from across the state.  If you are willing to help to lobby your delegation to co-sponsor this bill, please send us an email.

The bill will be filed by the deadline of next Friday, February 8, and we will continue to build support for it after that.

2.  Delegate Dana Stein will be a lead sponsor on a bill that will stop further expenditures and the issuance of debt on the ICC until there is a full greenhouse gas assessment of traffic on the highway and from the sprawl it would generate.     

3.  Delegate Tom Hucker has a bill into drafting that will also stop further expenditures and the issuance of debt on the ICC until there is a full study of the public health impacts on surrounding communities from toxic air pollution generated by vehicles on the ICC and other nearby roads.  The ICC would pass within 500 meters of 12,000 homes and right next to an elementary school.

We will begin to get co-sponsors on these bills once they are drafted - probably early next week.

Please do the following:

1.  Email your delegates and thank them if they co-sponsored the bill.
2.  Contact us for information on your delegation if they have not co-sponsored the bill.  
3.  Help us to recruit others for this effort over the next couple of months to do outreach, lobby and to give testimony at hearings.  

Attached are our fact sheets on the fiscal, climate and health implications of the ICC.
The True Direct Cost of Building the InterCounty Connector

The ICC's Potential Impacts

We will also be raising funds for grassroots outreach efforts via the Anacostia Watershed Society.  Funds may be donated via their website through Network for Good at:  www.anacostiaws.org.  Please designate the donation to "ICC Community Defense".  

Thanks for all your efforts and help.

Suchitra Balachandran
(240) 423-0422

Greg Smith
(301) 920-0437