The National Zoo is touting the use of environmentally-friendly LED lights in its holiday displays. “Zoolights,” which runs through Dec. 30, has “larger-than-life displays” of many of the Zoo’s popular critters.

And (wee!) sponsor Pepco “will educate visitors about simple practices they can adopt in their households to save energy.”

Have you used these LED lights on your home or Christmas tree? How do they look?

National Geographic says that if everyone replaced their conventional holiday light strings with LEDs, at least two billion kilowatt-hours of electricity could be saved in a month – enough to power 200,000 homes for a year.

-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

Who wants to help support the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries?

A new poll suggests most people in Maryland do. Better than four in five of the 500 residents polled on behalf of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said making the nation’s largest estuary cleaner should be a state funding priority, the group announced Thursday.

The results come as the foundation pushes for a new fee on hard surfaces to support a “green fund” to the tune of around $85 million per year. The money would help the state meet commitments it made with other states in the watershed to reduce pollution by 2010.

But it may be tougher to get businesses and large property owners to pay 1 cent per square foot of hard surfaces. Those who own big houses (more than 3,000 square feet) in the state would pay $40 per year into the green fund, while a warehouse owner could pay up to $5,500 per year.

One side says this is fairer than previous green fund plans that would tax new construction — and say the bay needs the money.

Others say it’s still to costly, especially for folks like food retailers — given other taxes that are on the table right now. What do you think?

-ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer

The utility that provides almost 2 million Marylanders with water is boycotting its bottled form.

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission announced Monday that it will forgo giving away bottled water at community events, citing the impact on the environment. (For anyone unawares, most of the bottles stack up in landfills, contributing to already-overburdened trash stockpiles).

From the release:

“One of WSSC’s core values is environmental stewardship. Every day, an estimated 60 million plastic water bottles are thrown away. Most are not recycled. Millions upon millions are ending up in our landfills,” said Jim Neustadt, Director of Communications and Community Relations. “By ending our use of bottled water, hopefully we can inspire others to make a change.”

-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

A Crisfield seafood wholesaler, MeTompkin Bay Oyster Company, pled guilty last month to federal charges of purchasing and selling undersized crabs. The AP reports the company was hit with a $50,000 fine, and was ordered to hand over 3,200 dozen undersized crabs.

Being a regular consumer of Maryland’s most well-known crustacean, the revelation of undersized crabs on the market is no shock. Thinking back many summers, the size and meatiness of the Chesapeake Bay bottom-dwellers sold now doesn’t even compare to a bushel I would madly dig through as a 12-year-old hopped up on Old Bay. If anyone thinks I’m delusional from all the ingested phosphates and nitrates in the bay, feel free to set me straight.

The only good news out of this nefarious seafood scandal? The undersized crabs seized in the sting will be donated to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore for two North American river otters’ dining pleasure. Dinner time is today, in case anyone wants to watch and celebrate the one-time evidence disappearing.

—FRANCIS SMITH, Special Publications Assistant Editor