Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: A Message from the Governor: Veterans Day, Energy Efficiency and State Regulatory Review

Thursday, November 03, 2011

A Message from the Governor: Veterans Day, Energy Efficiency and State Regulatory Review

A Message from the Governor

In all the many difficult decisions that we have to make as a people, job creation must be our number one priority, always.

To create jobs, a modern economy requires modern investments. That isn't a Democratic or Republican idea, it's an historic and economic truth.

But in our country today, we face a serious investment deficit. While our global competitors like China invest 9% of their Gross Domestic Product in infrastructure like roads, bridges, and tunnels – in the United States, we invest only 2%.

It's not what other countries are doing to us; it's what we're not doing for ourselves. President Obama has a plan to move us forward. The President's proposal would create hundreds of thousands of jobs rebuilding our roads, railways, and runways. How? With a $50 billion investment in surface transportation and the creation of a new, National Infrastructure Bank.

The President's plan will make a difference for those of us in Maryland – allowing us to create jobs and improve our quality of life, with investments in priorities like widening the I-70 bridge over Concocheague Creek in Washington County --and reconstructing the I-695 Baltimore Beltway bridge over Milford Mill Road,… a bridge that is 50 years old and structurally deficient.

Rebuilding America's infrastructure matters for job creation. It matters for our global competitiveness. And it matters for the type of country we leave to the next generation

- Governor O'Malley

What's Happening?

Reviewing State Regulations

Last month, Governor O'Malley signed an executive order to spark job creation in Maryland and we need your help! The executive order calls for a 60-day state review of current state regulations to identify and potentially eliminate regulations that are duplicative, outdated or present a barrier to job creation.

Our Cabinet Secretaries have begun their internal reviews and will submit recommendations in December. An essential piece of the report will consist of feedback and suggestions from you.

Please visit our website to submit your suggestion for a regulation that can be eliminated or reformed.

Maryland Students Excel, Again

For the past three years in a row, Maryland's public schools have ranked #1 in the country. Our high school students lead the nation with their Advanced Placement scores and together we've been able to cut the achievement gap between black and white students by nearly half. This week, we received more good news that over the past two years, Maryland's public school students made greater improvements on national standardized tests than most other States, according to the recently-released 2011 Nation's Report Card.

Congratulations to our students, educators and parents on this achievement.

Marylander on the Move: Erin Byers

Erin Byers is an Army veteran and multi-media artist who devotes her time to the Veteran Artist Program.

At age 26, she joined the Army and was deployed to Iraq where she served as a combat medic, leaving her passion for photography behind.

After returning home, she found art to be a healthy way to deal with the realities of war. She explains that "… there are things you see that other people don't want to hear you talk about and art is a way that veterans can 'talk' about their experiences."

She wants to help other veteran artists return to the passion that many of them had to give up.

Innovative Maryland

Maryland is committed to creating green jobs and building for an energy-efficient infrastructure to make our State more sustainable. Since 2009, Marylanders have saved over 900,000 MWh of electricity and over $117 million through efficiency upgrades, reduced consumption and investments in renewable energy options.

Just last month, Maryland was ranked one of the top 10 states in the nation for energy efficiency, according to the 2011State Energy Efficiency Scorecard by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. This determination is based on a variety of metrics comparing states on their efforts to advance efficiency in their residential, commercial, industrial and transportation sectors.
Maryland also received high marks in the area of transit-oriented development thanks to our high standards for greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions as well as our integration between transportation and land use planning.
Maryland has set a goal for electricity suppliers to procure 20% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2022. You can learn more about energy conservation in your own home and business here.

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