Coastal Bays Program deserves some slack

It’s understandable that some Worcester County Commissioners are miffed at the Maryland Coastal Bays Program for taking money from the devil, as in a $125,000 handout from offshore wind developer US Wind, but sometimes the devil is in the details.

In this case, the details include the program’s future funding through the Environmental Protection Agency. As part of the EPA’s National Estuary Program, the Coastal Bays Program gets somewhere around half its funding from the agency, which right now isn’t looking as stable as it has been because of the nomination of former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin to head the EPA.

That has caused conservationist organizations to wonder what Zeldon will do as a budget-cutter and  opponent of the EPA regulations. Although he  has said he supports maintaining clean air and water, no one knows how that will play out when current environmental programs come up against his promise to reduce the agency’s budget.

With the Coastal Bays Program’s continued existence on the line, its personnel might be excused from taking money wherever they can find it. Sometimes, you do what you have to do to keep going and deal with the fallout later.

This is not to criticize Commissioner Ted Elder for lambasting the program’s director, Kevin Smith, for taking money from an industry the commissioners strongly oppose. We get it, because on the surface it does look like a slap in the county’s face.

Still, the bays program is not in a position to reject any legal contribution, considering the changes the federal government faces and this state’s own financial mess.

Besides, what matters here is not where the Coastal Bays Program got the money, but what it intends to do with it. It’s people aren’t stupid, so it’s a safe bet that US Wind gets a nice thank-you note, while the program goes its own way.