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Greens want clean energy, and they're naming names.

Over the next two decades, Maryland will spend as much as $432.2 million on oil, coal and other fossil fuels — 2.6 times its residents' total earnings in 2007, according to a report released Tuesday by Environment Maryland.

Maryland will spend as much as $773 more per person every year on fossil fuels by 2030, if consumption trends continue, according to "The High Cost of Fossil Fuels: Why America Can't Afford to Depend on Dirty Energy."

That's as much as $3,237 per Marylander.

With fossil fuels the No. 1 source of air and global warming pollution and a leading source of water pollution, the group used the report to push the U.S. Senate to pass the cap-and-trade bill recently passed by the House of Representatives.

"We're disappointed Representative Bartlett voted against this bill, but we thank the rest of the Maryland delegation—in particular Representative Frank Kratovil of Maryland's 1st District — for supporting it," Will Brown, a field organizer with Environment Maryland, said in a news release. "Now is the time for bold and meaningful action on clean energy and global warming.

"The Senate must strengthen and pass this critical bill. We urge senators Cardin and Mikulski to move quickly to enact strong solutions for a clean energy economy and stopping global warming."

Apparently, if you're a freshman in a swing district (and you vote the right way) you get a first name. Bartlett, Cardin and Mikulski — you know who you are.

— Sean R. Sedam

Tailpipe triumph

Even if Maryland isn't all about clean energy, thanks to the feds it can now be all about clean cars.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday gave California the go-ahead to begin enforcing auto emissions standards that are stricter than those of the federal government, clearing the way for Maryland and 12 other states to do the same.

The Clean Cars Act, passed by the General Assembly in 2007, called for vehicles sold in Maryland starting in 2011 to be more fuel-efficient and produce fewer carbon dioxide emissions. But the legislation was put on hold after the Bush administration failed to grant California a waiver from the more lax federal standards, effectively blocking the stricter standards in Maryland and other states that followed California's lead.

The federal government will begin enforcing the stricter standards nationwide in 2012. Meanwhile, the 14 states can begin enforcing the standards for model years 2009 to 2011.

Once the standards go national, they are projected to achieve a 5 percent annual improvement in fuel economy from today's fleet average of 25.1 miles per gallon to 35.5 mpg in 2016, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

— Sean R. Sedam

Bartlett, theologian

Bartlett always has been hard to categorize. Stridently conservative, he breaks from his party on many issues, including energy.

For a few years now, he has been sounding the alarm on "peak oil." Its proponents say that economic decline will follow once the world starts drilling less oil. Even fellow Republicans have been reluctant to pay attention, he said.

"Their mantra, and the last part was unspoken, was drill now, drill more, pay less and to hell with our kids and our grandkids," Bartlett said.

The nine-term congressman was visiting the Montgomery County Council on Monday, at the invite of Council President Phil Andrews. Andrews has invited all the county's reps in Congress to make sure Montgomery has a full bench when it needs to go to bat for more money from Washington.

Bartlett — in a room full of Democrats — said he gets along well with his colleagues who have D's that follow their names.

"My first degree was in theology, where I learned to love the sinner but hate the sin," he said.

— Douglas Tallman

Progressive scoring

A perusal of Progressive Maryland's legislative scorecard, issued last week as the latest in a growing list of reviews of lawmakers' votes during the 2009 General Assembly, revealed a couple of eyebrow-raisers.

First, former Progressive Maryland executive director and founder Del. Tom Hucker did not receive the group's top score (fear not, he was one back of the lead). Second, Senate President Mike Miller, who has a three-year average of 80 points out of a possible 100 and has drawn the organization's ire over the years for impeding passage of its priority campaign finance legislation in the Senate, was named a "Hero of Working Families" with a score of 95.

The group finally won Miller over (and vice versa) this year. Miller got kudos for being one-half of an unlikely pairing with Sen. Paul Pinsky on a bill that would use tax check-offs to establish public campaign financing by the 2014 election. The bill died in committee, but Miller scored points with progressives.

The scorecard also ranked lawmakers on union-friendly legislation such as the Fair Share Act, which allows unions to collect fees from nonmembers who benefit from union representation but don't pay union dues, on a bill to plan for universal pre-kindergarten and on support for re-regulation of the electricity market.

Delegates posted an average score of 70, with Democratic delegates averaging 88 points and Republicans averaging 16.

Senate Republicans averaged 18 points and Senate Democrats averaged 80, for an overall Senate average of 60.

Sen. Jamie Raskin of Takoma Park was the top-scoring senator with a 98. Dels. Roger Manno of Silver Spring and Cheryl Glenn of Baltimore led the way in the House.

To read the entire scorecard, go to http://progressivemaryland.org.

— Sean R. Sedam

Si Se Puede Shalom

U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards returned from a May trip to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank with thoughts on the Middle East peace process — and slides! — that she shared with her 4th District constituents at White Oak Middle School in Silver Spring on Monday.

One man at the town hall said that President Obama's recent speech in Cairo, Egypt, gave a renewed sense of urgency to the peace process. He suggested to Edwards that Congress capitalize on that by creating a "Yes We Can! Middle East Peace" caucus.

Edwards seemed less than enthused.

"What Congress needs is another caucus," she said, sarcastically.

— Sean R. Sedam

Slip of the tongue

Perhaps Gov. Martin O'Malley was trying to drop Tony O'Donnell a hint when he mistakenly referred to him as "Senate Minority Leader" during introductions at the recent ribbon-cutting for the new Calvert Medical Arts Center.

Miller was quick to jump in and point out the faux pas.

"You're going to give him a heart attack," O'Donnell told O'Malley from his front-row seat, gesturing to Miller amid laughs from the crowd.

"It shows how highly I think of him," the guv responded.

Guess we missed all the times O'Malley whispered sweet nothings about O'Donnell between January and April.

— Alan Brody