A new report says fossil-fuel lobbyists in two states with strong transparency and disclosure laws are not making full disclosures - including in Maryland.

Maryland ranks seventh in the country and gets a grade of C-plus in the report from a group called F Minus - which tracks fossil-fuel lobbying efforts across the U.S.

James Browning, executive director of F Minus, said Maryland has strong laws requiring lobbyists to disclose their salaries and the bills they're working on.

But its audit found these disclosures are being made less than 50% of the time. Browning said some lobbyists also appear to have major conflicts of interest.

"What we also found is this rampant culture of lobbyists being sort of double agents for oil and gas companies," said Browning, "at the same time they're working for climate-conscious institutions."

Browning pointed to Johns Hopkins University's lobbying firm actively opposing a climate bill on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute. The lobbying firm didn't disclose that conflict.

Browning said the audit from F Minus has been sent to the state's ethics commission. He said he hopes that will spur additional audits on lobbying practices in the state.

He added that new policies on reporting would help keep their activities during legislative sessions transparent.

"There has to be a reality check in the middle of Maryland's three-month session - let's say at the end of February - where everyone has to disclose what they're doing," said Browning. "The way the law is written now, lobbyists can wait until May. The session is over in April."

Twenty-seven states received failing grades in the report for the overall lack of transparency in their lobbyist disclosure laws.



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Nearly 100 probationary workers for the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago have had their jobs cut and then reinstated in the last month. They have also been ordered to close all environmental justice offices in the agency, affecting another 30 employees in the region.

The latest threat is the possible closure of the EPA's Office of Research and Development, which could mean firing more than 1,000 scientists and support staff.

Nicole Cantello, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 704, which represents workers in the six Great Lakes area states, said the changes have put public safety and the environment at risk.

"There really is a connection between EPA and saving lives," Cantello pointed out. "No one knows what we do until we stop doing it, and then they feel the effects. But there are EPA employees here in Chicago that are protecting you every single day."

Issues they cover include dangerous pollution in air and drinking water, and the environmental aftermath of disasters like train derailments or oil spills. The EPA is calling Tuesday a National Day of Action, with demonstrations planned in at least eight cities across the country.

Cantello noted the agency uses the rules set by its scientific research teams to monitor for air quality and water quality problems and alert the public.

"When the Trump administration takes away the scientists, they take away EPA's ability to address emerging environmental problems that haven't yet been studied but we use our scientists to tell us how to address," Cantello explained.

Cantello added proposed cuts could also affect the BEACH Act, which for more than two decades has covered EPA monitoring of coastal recreation waters. She stressed it would put the Great Lakes at risk.

"If we don't implement the BEACH Act anymore, then we won't be able to tell whether or not our beaches are safe," Cantello emphasized. "Especially from things like E. coli, which, lots of times, there's beaches shut down because of that."

The Trump administration called the cuts necessary to curb government waste and spending.


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Michigan environmental groups are pushing back as Enbridge's Line 5 tunnel faces "emergency" review, potentially bypassing full scrutiny and public input.

The move comes after President Donald Trump's executive order declared a national energy emergency to fast-track infrastructure projects. Environmental groups warn a Line 5 tunnel leak threatens the Great Lakes.

Sean McBrearty, campaign coordinator for the advocacy group Oil and Water Don't Mix, believes public outcry over the past week, led the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to remove 600 emergency-designated projects, including Line 5, from its website.

"Now we don't know whether they've changed the status of those projects or the proposed status of those projects," McBrearty pointed out. "Or whether they're still doing the same thing and just attempting to hide it from the public."

The tunnel would replace lake bed pipelines beneath the Straits of Mackinac with a concrete-lined enclosure for Line 5. In a recent statement Enbridge said, in part, Michigan approved environmental permits and tunnel placement for Line 5, but after nearly five years, the project still awaits a U.S. Army Corps decision on its environmental impact.

Meanwhile, the Michigan Court of Appeals recently upheld state permits for the tunnel, allowing Enbridge to move forward. McBrearty argued Enbridge lacks tunnel-building experience, calling them "ditch diggers" and labeling Line 5 a high-risk, low-reward venture.

"This tunnel would be actually the highest pressurized tunnel in the world, if it's built," McBrearty noted. "Pressure down there is measured at seventeen atmospheres - five atmospheres is enough to kill somebody. That shouldn't be rushed through as an emergency under any circumstances."

Enbridge maintains the Line 5 tunnel enhances pipeline safety, ensures energy reliability, supports jobs, and has 70% of Michiganders' support.

The Trump administration has started dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency's office dealing with reducing environmental harms to minority and low-income communities who have faced the brunt of climate change and pollution.

More than 160 staffers in the EPA's Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights were put on paid administrative leave last week. More than 200 staffers work for the office, which was combined with two others in 2022.

Adrienne Hollis, vice president of environmental justice, health and community resilience and revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation, said the EPA department is just like any other office dealing with environmental protection. A specific environmental effort, she said, needs a specific office to coordinate efforts.

"Some communities may file a complaint about the fact that, given the contamination they're exposed to, there may be issues that violate the civil rights act," Hollis pointed out. "Just as the air group, you need a focal point: a place to go, a place to get information and share information."

The office was first created by former President George H.W. Bush in 1992. Since 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency has conducted more than 300 reviews of civil rights compliance, including 11 in Maryland.

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order working to disband environmental justice offices across the federal government. The administration has also taken down a decades-old tool to track environmental burdens across the country.

Hollis noted some of the state's most vulnerable communities will be the most negatively affected by the major rollbacks and potential shutterings.

"It's going to affect the ability of communities and advocates and activists to really focus on these specific environmental outcomes that are related to systemic racism," Hollis emphasized. "They're place-based, they're based on race, and they're exacerbated by climate change."

The administration has also paused all environmental litigation in the Justice Department. The administration has said it is following through on promises Trump made during the presidential campaign to whittle down the size of the federal government.