Maryland Energy Talk

As of today, July 1st, it is legal, under certain conditions, to plug solar panels directly into a wall outlet in Maryland. Plug-in solar legislation is sweeping the nation with more than 20 states considering similar policies. While the general concept is simple, put the plug-in the outlet, the exact regulations differ in each state. I hope that by the end of the episode today you will have a com...

In the negotiations between the House and the Senate on the Utility RELIEF Act this year, one of the major sticking points was whether to get rid of forecasted test years, as pushed for by the Speaker of the House. The compromise paused the practice for a year, asked the PSC to study the issue, but did not permanently prohibit their use. Given that it was such a flash point of disagreement between...

Delegate Adrian Boafo has served in the Maryland legislature for the past four years. In those years Delegate Boafo established himself as a champion in the climate change and clean energy space, introducing some of the boldest and most ambitious bills in the legislature including the RENEW Act and the Better Buildings Act, two of the bills nearest and dearest to my heart.  Now, as Delegate Boafo...

The tidal wave of data centers flooding onto our grid is a major reason why energy bills are going up. A recent report from Monitoring Analytics found that data centers are currently costing customers on Maryland’s regional grid over $9 billion in increased energy costs annually. If data centers were to bring their own new clean energy it would reduce or eliminate those costs that all of us are cu...

Air pollution is a significant threat to human health and well being. Particulate Matter of 2.5 micrometers and smaller, known as PM 2.5, is only one of common air pollutants and it causes 85-200 thousand deaths a year in the United States. It has been well documented that the sources of air pollution have been concentrated in black and brown communities. NYT reporting found that Black Americans a...

In December of 2025 a final switch was flipped and 160 megawatts of electricity started flowing onto Maryland’s grid from the biggest solar farm in the entire state, the Backbone power project in Garrett County. To give you a sense of how big 160 megawatts is, this project will produce more electricity than all the homes in Garrett County combined use in a year. When Backbone Power came online, it...

Among the many changes made by Speaker Pena-Melnyk is moving energy issues from the Economic Matters Committee to the Environment and Transportation Committee. This is a change represents a shift in how energy issues are contextualized, from primarily being a matter of economic development, to being about the environment. This move sends the hot potato of energy issues to Chair Korman, who is my g...

Building new transmission is extremely costly and highly controversial but at the same time we know that more transmission will be needed on our electric grid as energy demand continues to grow. Is it possible for us to ensure the grid is capable of moving energy where it needs to go without breaking the bank or seizing property through eminent domain?  The SAVINGS Act, introduced by Delegate Qi a...

In his executive order on climate and energy issues in June of 2024 Governor Moore directed his agencies to design and implement a Zero-Emission Heating Equipment Standard and a Clean Heat Standard to support it. As far as policies to reduce pollution and costs for homeowners go, this is the gold standard, and I applaud Governor Moore for his leadership on this issue. A Zero-Emission Heating Equip...

Maryland has had policies to boost in-state solar generation for about two decades now, and those investments have paid off significantly. Solar accounts for 7% of the electricity Maryland generates, which is more than we generate from coal. Pennsylvania, which has practically no solar investment policy, gets only 1.25%   of their electricity from solar. Even though Pennsylvania has twice the popu...

On December 17th 2025 something happened at PJM that has never happened before. At their regularly scheduled Capacity Auction, PJM did not hit capacity. If you are like me, it’s clear to you that this is bad news, but you aren’t precisely sure what that means. To break it down and share his expertise I spoke with Bryan Dunning who is Senior Policy Analyst with Center for Progressive Reform.

Many of the buildings that make up the Baltimore Skyline are heated by an underground network of steam moved through pipes. That district heating system is owned and operated by a company called Vicinity. Right now, that steam is almost entirely generated through combustion. However, Vicinity has high hopes for transitioning to electric steam, which is a very cool name for steam generated through...

Whether you care about energy costs, climate change, job creation or grid reliability there is one program in Maryland that has been more successful than any other, and that is the EmPOWER Program the state’s flagship energy efficiency program.  According to recent analysis, Every dollar invested in EmPOWER Maryland returns $1.81 in benefits for Marylanders. By reducing aggregate consumer demand f...

In 2022 Maryland passed the Climate Solutions Now Act, a law that is so popular that Governor Hogan chose not to veto it in an election year. Maryland is now required by law to eliminate our net greenhouse gas pollution by 2045 and hit a 60% by 2031 benchmark.  The very next year, in 2023 Maryland had the tremendous good fortune to have Governor Moore appoint Serena McIlwain as the new Secretary o...

I think most people following Maryland energy issues are aware that Brandon Shores and Wagner coal plants are closing because coal cannot compete in today’s energy market, but far fewer know the full story of how these two coal plants, built more than 50 years ago, ended up costing Maryland rate payers billions of dollars in the 2020s. That story is so full of negligence, greed, and conflict of in...

Appliances used to heat our buildings emit three times more air pollution than all the power plants in Maryland combined. As we have talked about before, addressing this pollution in large existing buildings has tremendous benefits, and Building Energy Performance Standards or BEPS are an indispensable tool for energy efficiency and pollution reduction from large existing buildings. 15 different j...

In February of 2023 the Maryland People’s Counsel initiated a docket at the Public Service Commission to consider the future of gas in Maryland. That docket has already resulted in meaningful changes to how Maryland regulates gas infrastructure, and the process is far from complete. To talk about the proceedings, what has come out of them so far, and what the next steps in the process are, I am th...

Solar appears to have reached some kind of super critical singularity, or tipping point. Whatever you want to call it, something is happening with solar that has never happened before and that many people never thought would never be possible.  In the first half of 2025 China installed more than 250 gigawatts of solar energy. For context, the PJM Grid has a combined total capacity of 182 gigawatts...

Energy prices are going up and it is a real problem. Families are being forced to make difficult decisions about whether to heat their home, or put food on the table. What is driving up these energy bills? Exactly how much have they gone up, and what can people do to lower their bills?  To help answer all of these questions my guest today is low income energy advocate Laurel Peltier who Chairs the...

If you could take every dollar the state invests in clean energy and turn it into two dollars, that would be a super power, but much more than that The Maryland Clean Energy Center has proven that it is able to turn every one dollar invested into clean energy into 14 dollars. Given that the state sorely needs the ability to multiply money right now, I sat down with Kathy Magruder who is the Execut...

The demand for electricity in our region is projected to increase sharply in the coming years, driven largely by data centers. We know that the fastest, most cost effective way to make sure the grid has the capacity to accommodate this increased demand is through the use of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs).  Sparkfund is a new company with a novel approach to bringing DERs to scale. I first hea...

Energy prices in Maryland are going up. They rose in January of this year mainly because of utility overspending on distribution networks, this summer and fall, bills are going to go up again but this time because of increases to the supply part of the bill, the responsibility of our region’s grid manager, PJM.   It is well established that the private organization PJM that oversees our grid makes...

Mike Tidwell is the founder and executive director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and a successful author. For the past 20 years he has dedicated practically every day of his life to doing the most he possibly can to reduce the harmful impacts of climate change. In the past two years or so that has meant on top of being an executive director for a regional non-profit, waking up before da...

Congratulations on finishing the legislative session of 2025 everyone! I want to say a heartfelt and genuine thank you to every lawmaker and every staffer who worked this session. As we are seeing on the federal level, a functioning government is not something to be taken for granted, and it is only possible here in Maryland because of your tremendous work and dedication. Thank you for your public...

Advanced Clean Cars II is, according to MDE, Maryland’s single largest climate pollution reduction strategy over the long term, and Advanced Clean Trucks is a second program having a significant positive impact on Maryland’s transition off of fossil fuels.  Unfortunately, there is legislation being considered this year, HB1556, that would delay the enforcement of both of these programs.  In that c...