Maryland Energy Talk

In this episode we take a break from our normal energy focused programing to talk about a historic and nationally significant bill moving through the legislature in Maryland, the Prescription Drug Affordability Board HB424/SB357. At a time when prices for everything are going up, Maryland lawmakers have found a way to lower the cost to Marylander of one of the most expensive and necessary items in...

In Annapolis there is much debate about what Maryland’s electric grid does or doesn’t need, one thing that has been decidedly absent is any publicly available modeling about Maryland’s electric grid.  That’s why I am so thrilled that the respected modeling firm Center for Climate Strategies has just put out a new report based on a model they created of Maryland’s energy system. This report has so...

I have a real treat to share with you today, a conversation with Delegate Charkoudian explaining what a Renewable Energy Credit is! This is another one from the vault, and this is actually the very first conversation we recorded together, the one that got this whole podcast started.  A Renewable Energy Credit is really the building block that makes up our entire clean energy policy, and you really...

I think everyone in Annapolis is aware there are a lot of energy bills flying around, but not everyone is fully up to date on each of the bills, what they do, and how they interact. The goal of this episode is to give you a crash course on the biggest electricity generation bills this year and what they all mean.  We will talk about the three bills in the energy package that the Senate President a...

In 2022 the Maryland General Assembly enacted Building Energy Performance Standards or BEPS. More than a dozen states and municipalities have enacted BEPS and it’s easy to see why. The program has benefits for air quality, energy affordability, grid stability, and quality of life. As Churchill said “We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.” Improving our buildings improves ou...

Transportation is the largest single source of climate pollution in Maryland. Fully one third of all our emissions come from this sector. For reference, the second biggest source of emissions in Maryland is electricity generation which makes up only about one fifth of total emissions.  The legislation in the general assembly this year that has the greatest potential to reduce emissions from the tr...

In the summer of 2024 I sat down with Delegate Lorig Charkoudian to record a conversation about what PJM is and how it affects our energy policy here in Maryland. This was before the launch of this podcast, and we simply uploaded our conversation onto Youtube where you can still find it.  This is one of my favorite conversations I have recorded on energy policy because it really demystifies an ent...

Right now, Marylanders are paying for the costs of climate change. Higher tides, hotter heat waves, and heavier rain events are all damaging infrastructure and requiring expensive repairs. Public schools that never needed AC for over a hundred years now need to have AC installed at great expense to tax payers. Salt water intrusion is making what used to be agricultural land infertile, slashing pro...

In 2024 the Maryland General Assembly passed the Electricity and Gas - Retail Supply - Regulation and Consumer Protection Act, better known as SB 1, introduced by Senate President Pro-Tem Malcolm Augustine and Vice-Chair of the House Economic Matters committee Brian Crosby. SB 1 set a national standard for protecting consumers from predatory retail suppliers, some of whom were luring people into c...

Many Marylanders are seeing record high gas bills this year because of a little known Maryland program called STRIDE  In 2013 Maryland lawmakers created the STRIDE program to fix leaks in certain gas pipes. At the time, no one anticipated it would result in utilities building entirely new gas systems and costing Marylander tens of billions of dollars, but that is exactly what has happened I sat do...

Maryland needs to generate more electricity in state. As Delegate Lorig Charkoudian explains, the fastest, cheapest way to do that is through the Abundant, Affordable, Clean Energy Act, or AACE Act that she and Senator Brooks are introducing in 2025. The quickest, most reliable way to get more in state electricity generation may not be what you think it is. Sources: Governor Moore's Climate Pollut...