For at least the next year, Gov. Josh Shapiro will helm a multistate effort to clean and restore the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed.
The nine-member Chesapeake Executive Council elected Gov. Josh Shapiro as its chair during a public meeting Tuesday at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
In accepting the role, the first-term Democrat acknowledged Pennsylvania has historically taken a “backseat” to addressing concerns impacting the Chesapeake Bay, but he said those days are over.
“Pennsylvania is back in the game, and we are all in when it comes to the bay,” Shapiro said, noting that he is building on the efforts of his predecessor, Tom Wolf, to raise the state’s status in protecting the Chesapeake.
The council comprises the governors of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, as well as the mayor of Washington, D.C., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator, and the chair of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, which is a collaboration of the watershed states’ legislators.
The council met Tuesday to approve a revised bay cleanup agreement, which extends the previous 2025 deadline until 2040 for member states to address a host of issues, including cutting nutrient and sediment pollution, increasing public access to waterways, boosting wildlife populations and preserving more land along the watershed region.
Shapiro steps into the leading role after the regional partnership failed to meet many of its goals set in the initial 2014 agreement.
And the Chesapeake Bay’s health declined to a “C” in 2024, according to the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s annual report card released in June — down from the historically high “C+” in 2023.
Shapiro said he doesn’t want to “just talk about making progress” in his term leading the council, and that he plans to guide the body to not only support conservation efforts but boost the economic benefits of the Chesapeake Bay.
“I think the bay is a powerful driver of opportunity for everyone,” Shapiro said, “from our fishermen to our outdoor (recreation) outfitters, to our farmers, to the small business owners who benefit when tourists visit our waterways and then hang out on our main streets.”
Restoration plans
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, said the Chesapeake Executive Council had lofty goals when he first entered office in 2022, but no solid plan to meet them.
“I grew up on the bay. I’ve seen the bay decline, and I’ve seen it recover,” Youngkin said. “There is a particular affection that I personally have, but also a recognition that the bay is a true gift from an Almighty Creator. And therefore, we have a responsibility and an obligation to go to work together.”
Though Youngkin highlighted some progress the group has made, such as reaching a record reduction in pollutants, the nonprofit Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which works independently to restore the health of the bay, said in a statement that the states failed to meet the initial goal set in 2014.
Hilary Harp Falk, president of the foundation, noted the regional partnership has succeeded in some goals, including hitting targets for restoring the oyster population.
“The revised Bay Agreement is what we need to keep progress alive,” Falk said. “Even in a time of deep division and uncertainty, leaders from across the political spectrum still find common ground in restoring the bay. But words alone won’t save the bay. Now is the time for bold action and thinking big.”
The Chesapeake Executive Council’s new agreement includes a check-in meeting in 2033 to potentially revise the plan again.
State Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Lycoming, is vice-chair of the Chesapeake Bay Commission and chairs the Senate’s Environmental Resources and Energy Committee. He said Pennsylvania has effectively improved water quality in the watershed and that he supports the council’s latest revised goals.
“The revised Agreement supports a local-first approach, with goals that ensure our work is relevant to all residents of the watershed,” Yaw said. “It also remains committed to the use of sound science and transparency so our constituents can have trust in our efforts.”
Taking the reins
Chairing the Chesapeake Bay group, founded in 1983, marks Shapiro’s second position leading a multistate conservation agreement. In October, he was elected by U.S. and Canadian officials to chair the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers.
Shapiro also enters the new role after facing backlash from some environmental advocates for his agreement with Republican lawmakers to withdraw Pennsylvania from an interstate cap-and-trade agreement, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Shapiro is up for reelection next year and is widely considered a contender for the Democratic Party’s 2028 presidential nomination.
Shapiro succeeds Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, another Democrat seen as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
“We know that in this moment, that we’ve made real progress, but more is required. More is coming,” Moore said, before passing the chair’s gavel to Shapiro. “And that we do stand here with an obligation, both to those who came before us, who are looking down on us and hoping that we get this moment right; and those who will come after us, who are looking up at us and saying, ‘We hope you get this moment right.’ “