Chesapeake Bay Foundation Going on the Offensive

Chesapeake Bay Foundation says cleaning up the bay will create jobs

In Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said opponents of environmental regulations are winning political and legislative battles, mostly because they can out-talk their opposition.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation released a report on pollution limits in the Bay, saying such regulations are not a "job killer" as people like Virginia Republican Congressman Eric Cantor have stated.

"The opponents of environmental regulation, for whatever motives, have said that this costs jobs so many times, the public is starting to believe it," Foundation President Will Baker said.

They will fight back by doing the same thing, with only one difference, Baker said.

"We're going to start saying that environmental protection creates jobs so many times -- and show the evidence as they have shown no evidence to support their arguments -- people are going to start believing the truth," Baker said.

In the report, the Foundation said over the past two decades jobs dedicated to cleaning up the Bay in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia have increased 43 percent. With the federal government okaying new pollution limits for the Bay two years ago, the Foundation argues that jobs numbers will only rise in the coming years.

Several of the farmers on the Eastern Shore argue the new limits will be too expensive for them to follow, meaning they might have to sell their land to developers, which would lead to a whole different set of environmental problems.

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