Hogan Vetoes Oyster Sanctuary Bill

[TexasTowelie]

Just hours before it was due to go into effect, Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) vetoed a bill on Thursday night that would have established five permanent oyster sanctuaries in Chesapeake Bay tributaries. The bill, among other things, would have barred oyster harvesting in the five waterways.

Environmentalists and the bill’s sponsors – House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) and Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Chair Paul G. Pinsky (D-Prince George’s) said the legislation represented the best hope for restoring the Bay’s dwindling oyster population.

But in his veto message, Hogan said the measure “is bad for our watermen” and asserted that it “disrupts a fair process that was working well, and ignores good science and citizen consensus on how to best enhance the oyster population.”

In a statement, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Maryland executive director, Alison Prost, called Hogan’s veto “extremely shortsighted.”

Read more: https://www.marylandmatters.org/blog/hogan-vetoes-oyster-sanctuary-bill/

[Kurt V.]

1. racing to precipice. Good grief