Latest news with #NextGenerationEnergyAct
E&E News
22-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Maryland governor signs sprawling energy plan, vetoes climate studies
Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed a sprawling package of energy legislation this week in response to spiking electricity bills, smoothing the way for a new gas-fired power plant and speeding up the permitting process for solar projects. Moore signed both the Next Generation Energy Act and Renewable Energy Certainty Act on Tuesday, days after he outraged climate hawks by vetoing bills to study data center impacts and greenhouse gas costs to the state. Moore cited the state's $3 billion deficit in vetoing the RENEW Act, which called for the greenhouse gas study, and legislation to study the impact of data centers on the state's electricity market. He also vetoed legislation to create a new Strategic Energy Planning Office, saying it would be too costly and duplicative. Advertisement 'Studies can serve a purpose, but their overuse is a drag on the State government,' Moore wrote in his veto message for the RENEW ACT and other studies. 'Many of these reports are never read and simply collect dust on shelves, but nonetheless, executive branch agencies are required to dedicate funding and staff time to each.'
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Moore signs two energy bills as June rate hikes loom
Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed 181 bills into law Tuesday, including two that one supporter called 'the most substantive energy affordability package that Maryland has seen in several decades.' It came just days before steep rate hikes are set to take effect. (Photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters.) Days after vetoing an energy-focused bill backed by General Assembly leadership, Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed two others into law Tuesday. The larger of the two bills, called the Next Generation Energy Act, aims to increase in-state power generation and battery energy storage, while curtailing costs for consumers by limiting how utilities can spend ratepayer dollars. The second bill, the Renewable Energy Certainty Act, creates uniform siting standards for commercial solar farms in Maryland, in some cases overruling local jurisdictions that had sought to restrict the farms with zoning rules. Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said the bills make up 'the most substantive energy affordability package that Maryland has seen in several decades.' But the new measures come less than two weeks before an expected June rate hike hits. Prices for Baltimore Gas and Electric customers are estimated to jump $16 per month, and customers of other utilities could see similar increases, according to a report from the Maryland Office of People's Counsel, which represents ratepayers in the state. The People's Counsel in April asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to intervene, an appeal echoed in a letter Tuesday signed by 87 Maryland legislators. Their letter argued that the energy auction last year that sparked this summer's rate hike was flawed. Ferguson, for whom energy policy was a focus this past session, said that sky-high energy bills over the winter months were a 'wake-up call' that spurred the legislature to action. 'We know that older coal plants and oil plants are being retired based on private action, and we have not built up enough alternative energy to fill it fast enough. And so the General Assembly had to act this year,' Ferguson said. Moore signs fiscal 2026 budget with tax increases into law in final bill signing He sponsored the Next Generation Energy Act, which was focused on power generation but became the vehicle for a number of energy proposals, on everything from trash incineration to natural gas infrastructure spending. The law also pulls about $200 million from a state fund that collects payments from electricity suppliers who cannot meet the state's renewable energy mandates and redirects the money to refunds for ratepayers. The rebate will average about $80 per household, split between two payments: one this summer and the second in the winter months. Some officials, including Maryland People's Counsel David Lapp, blame multi-state electric grid operator PJM Interconnection for the coming rate hikes. They say that when PJM held a capacity auction last year, it did not include the power expected to be generated by two fossil fuel powered plants it was requiring to stay open, driving prices at auction higher. Not only will ratepayers pay the high auction prices for power, they will also pay a premium to keep the two Talen Energy plants — Brandon Shores and H.A. Wagner — operating. PJM has already pledged to change its auction policies to prevent a similar situation in the future. In the meantime, Lapp in April petitioned FERC to reject the cost increases for ratepayers. On Tuesday, the 87 legislators joined the chorus, urging FERC to reject the costs as 'unjust and unreasonable.' The Maryland Public Service Commission also backed Lapp, filing its own comments with FERC on Tuesday. 'Without Commission action, customers still will be stuck paying 'twice' as a result of last summer's auction,' the lawmakers' letter said. 'The Commission must act expeditiously to acknowledge and remedy the problems.' Lawmakers also called on FERC to 'protect Maryland customers from having to pay for windfall profits — far above the costs of service — to Talen to keep its Baltimore-area plants online.' Their letter said the two plants could keep running at a cost of $97 million, but consumers will be charged $180 million. Last week, a group calling itself the Maryland Environment Labor and Industry Coalition filed as a ballot issue committee with the state, indicating it intended to challenge the Next Generation bill via referendum. But a representative for the group said that was looking unlikely after Tuesday's signing ceremony. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'I would bet that they will not go forward with the referendum, and instead work closely with the governor and legislature to promote responsible environmental and labor-friendly laws,' said Doug Gansler, the state's Maryland attorney general. He said the group is still reviewing its options. But with no public outreach campaign, and just 11 days to collect the first 20,000 petition signatures from verified Maryland voters, he said the challenge may just be too great. The group, which has Montgomery County ties, seemed poised to focus on part of the Next Generation Act that would end a 'renewable energy' subsidy for trash incinerators that produce power. The state's two such incinerators are in Baltimore City and Montgomery County. The solar energy bill signed Tuesday by Moore has also garnered criticism, particularly from Republican legislators representing the rural Eastern Shore, who argued that the policy would make it easier for solar companies to gobble up productive farmland. But it was perhaps the least controversial bill of the package that found itself the target of a Moore veto Friday: A bill creating a 'Strategic Energy Planning Office,' funded by an existing process that also fuels the Public Service Commission and Office of People's Counsel. Moore's veto, citing the cost of establishing the office, surprised sponsor Sen. Katie Fry Hester (D-Howard and Montgomery). 'I look forward to better understanding his rationale and will work with leadership in the Legislature to determine next steps,' Hester said in a statement to Maryland Matters Friday. In a statement Tuesday, Emily Scarr, a senior adviser at the consumer advocacy group Maryland PIRG, said the bill made 'groundbreaking pro-consumer changes to utility regulation.' 'By prioritizing safety over gas system expansion and reining in wasteful spending by BGE and other Maryland utilities, this new law can save Marylanders hundreds of millions of dollars,' Scarr wrote. Lapp agreed. Family, loved ones of Davis Martinez honored during final bill signing of 2025 'Maximizing the legislation's potential benefits will depend on lots of work at the Public Service Commission,' Lapp said. 'We look forward to using the new tools to slow or prevent further rate increases.' Environmental groups were more mixed in their responses to the Next Generation bill. Many were troubled by its potential to expedite a new natural gas power plant in Maryland, including by fast-tracking new facilities on the site of retired power plants. But amendments lessened the blow, and added environmental priorities — like beefing up energy storage and cutting funding for incineration. The Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition, now known as MAREC Action, an industry group representing utility-scale developers of wind and solar, as well as battery energy storage, applauded the bill's power storage provisions in a statement Tuesday. 'With this legislation, our industry will invest in Maryland, deliver reliable energy resources needed to keep the lights on, and stabilize prices for Maryland ratepayers,' said Evan Vaughan, executive director of MAREC Action. The bill calls for two procurement periods, beginning in 2026, when the Maryland Public Service Commission will seek to bring 800 megawatts of energy storage in each period to the state. Currently, the multistate electric grid that includes Maryland only hosts 375 megawatts of storage, which MAREC said 'pales in comparison' to other states such as California and Texas. If Maryland follows through with the procurements, it would be positioned as an 'energy storage leader' within the 13-state PJM region, according to the industry group's news release. The purchases could work quickly to fill gaps in Maryland's electric grid, by storing energy for use during peak times, Vaughan said. 'Governor Moore and legislative leaders acted quickly and decisively to ensure Maryland maximizes its energy storage resources,' Vaughan wrote. 'These resources meet energy reliability needs more quickly than any other resource.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
It's not even law yet, but opponents threaten to take energy reform bill to referendum
Contractors work to repair power transmission lines in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, after 2017 hurricanes in this U.S. Army Corp of Engineers file photo. (Photo by Eduardo Martinez/FEMA) Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) has yet to sign the legislature's biggest energy bill into law, but there is already a campaign in the works to challenge the measure at referendum. A group calling itself the Maryland Environment, Labor, and Industry Coalition filed as a ballot issue committee Tuesday with the State Board of Elections, signaling its intent to begin gathering signatures to get the issue on the ballot in November 2026 if it is not vetoed. The bill, called the Next Generation Energy Act, includes a variety of provisions aimed at greasing the skids for more in-state power generation and storage, amid soaring energy bills in Maryland. It also nixed a subsidy for trash incinerators that generate energy: Since 2011, Maryland had considered that renewable energy, making incinerator operators eligible to sell millions in credits each year. Doug Gansler, the former Maryland attorney general now in private practice, said the referendum 'has to overturn the entire bill,' but that the waste-to-energy provisions would be a focus for the ballot campaign. 'There's a lot of good pieces in the bill, but there's a lot of components of the bill that people are not enamored with — and some that are just bad,' said Gansler, who said he was approached to provide legal services for the group. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Getting on the ballot is no easy task: The coalition will need to collect just over 20,000 verified signatures from supporters by May 31 at 11:59 p.m. It would need to collect about 40,000 more by the end of the day June 30. The last time a legislative act was challenged at referendum was in 2012, when voters petitioned to get same-sex marriage on the ballot. Voters approved the measure by a slim margin. It wasn't immediately clear Thursday which groups formed the coalition. Campaign filings listed Rebecca Smondrowski as chair and Samir Malhotra as treasurer. Both have Montgomery County addresses. Smondrowski is a former Montgomery County school board member, and Malhotra described himself as a small business owner frustrated by high energy costs. (He said he is not the former chief of staff to Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who shares the same name.) Gansler cautioned that the campaign is still in its infancy. 'The hope is that the governor vetoes the bill. That's what everyone hopes and thinks should happen,' Gansler said. 'If and when he does not, then we'll kind of figure things out.' Moore has one final bill signing scheduled on May 20. A spokesperson declined to comment on his plans for the legislation, which was part of a three-bill energy package supported by Democratic leadership in the House and Senate. Republican legislators have argued that the bill does little to curb rising rates, and doesn't go far enough to incentivize new power generation, including nuclear and natural gas. Some environmental and consumer advocacy groups considered the Next Generation bill a mixed bag. On one hand, its provisions could streamline a new natural gas-fired power plant in Maryland, despite the state's push to shift to renewable energy such as wind and solar. But it also included provisions expediting battery energy storage, and curtailing utilities' spending on natural gas infrastructure, as well as private jets and industry association memberships, using ratepayer dollars. The bill would also dole out an $80 rebate, on average, to every Maryland ratepayer, to make up for high costs. The provision cutting trash-burning from the state's renewable energy portfolio has the support of many high-profile environmental groups, who argue that the state should focus on subsidizing other generation that does not generate air pollution, such as wind and solar power. But it also garnered fierce opposition, including from the state's two current incinerators. In 2023, the last year for which data is publicly available, those incinerators — one in Montgomery County and one in Baltimore City — each received funds, as did another incinerator in Virginia. The incinerators accounted for 14.2% of 'renewable energy credits' purchased by electricity suppliers, for a total of about $27 million. The Waste-to-Energy Association, which represents incineration companies nationally, said in a statement Thursday that it is not driving the new ballot campaign, but it supports the effort. 'While Maryland is facing an energy crisis resulting in an unreliable grid and skyrocketing costs, the bill removes support for the dependable energy generated from waste,' wrote Thomas Hogan, the association's president. 'This bill is reckless and while we did not create the ballot committee, we will happily join this effort,' Hogan wrote. 'In the meantime, we urge Governor Moore to veto this bill so that lawmakers can develop real solutions to our energy challenges.' WIN Waste, which operates the incinerator in South Baltimore, said it was not aware of the ballot committee, but 'considered the option' itself, according to spokesperson Mary Urban. 'The negative impact to the industry, in-state energy generation and Maryland ratepayers cannot be overstated — not to mention the State's economic and climate goals,' Urban wrote. The company has argued that burning waste should be subsidized in part because it is more environmentally friendly than landfilling, especially since waste may have to be transported longer distances from the Baltimore region to a dump. WIN Waste has also cited about $45 million in recent facility upgrades to curb air pollution from its smokestack along Interstate 95. Complicating the already short timeline for gathering signatures is uncertainty about whether electronic signatures can be used to reach the cutoff, in addition to signatures gathered in-person, Gansler said. The total signature requirement is 3% of the voters in the last gubernatorial election, or 60,157, all of whom must be Maryland registered voters. Since the last ballot referendum in 2012, the state's reliance on electronic signatures and electronic filings has increased, Gansler said. 'There's a strong case legally that e-signatures may suffice, and we're looking into that now,' Gansler said, adding that electronic signatures would 'make a challenging deadline far less challenging.' If the issue reaches the ballot, Gansler said his clients are optimistic that they will succeed. They point to a February poll from the Institute of Politics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. It found a majority of the 800 Maryland voters surveyed supported a variety of energy generation types, with the exception of coal, with 68% in favor of trash incinerators helping to increase the state's power generation. 'Once the referendum gets on the ballot, it will pass,' Gansler said. 'It will get overturned.'
CBS News
02-05-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Maryland joins multi-state effort to improve regional power transmission, reduce costs
Maryland has joined eight other Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states in launching a collaborative effort to improve electricity transmission between regions, improve power reliability, and reduce energy costs. The Northeast States Collaborative on Interregional Transmission issued a joint strategic action plan outlining specific steps for addressing gaps in transmission planning across state boundaries. "Increased transmission capacity can provide consumer cost savings and reduce the need for fossil-fueled power plants that exist solely to meet peak demand," Moore said. "This collaboration illustrates exactly why state-led action is so important to achieving our energy, environmental, and economic goals." What actions will the collaborative take? The strategic action plan includes both near-term and mid-term initiatives to guide the participating states. In the near future, the group will issue a Request for Information to identify specific potential qualifying interregional transmission projects. The plan also identifies transmission equipment standardization as a key strategy to reduce development costs for new transmission infrastructure. Which states are involved? The Northeast States Collaborative includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. The partnership was formed following a 2023 request to the U.S. Department of Energy to explore how ISO New England, New York ISO, and PJM Interconnection could improve electricity flow between regions. After signing a memorandum of understanding last summer to establish a framework for coordinating activities, the states identified the strategic action plan released today as a critical next step forward. Why is interregional transmission important? The initiative aims to address longstanding challenges in the power grid by promoting better connectivity between regional transmission systems. Enhanced transmission capacity would allow states to share electricity resources more efficiently, particularly during periods of high demand, according to the governors office. Marylanders struggle with high energy costs In Maryland, Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) customers have faced significant rate increases, with gas bills rising 9% and electric bills increasing 7% as of January 1, 2025. The actual impact on consumers has been even greater due to increased energy usage (19-22% higher than last year) and natural gas prices that are 30% higher than in January 2024. BGE has cited aging infrastructure, supply issues, and cold weather as factors behind the rate hikes. In response, the Baltimore City Council passed a resolution calling on the Public Service Commission to stop BGE's planned 2026 utility rate increases, while also demanding an end to the multi-year rate pilot program. Maryland lawmakers passed the Next Generation Energy Act, which aims to help reduce energy costs. The bill mandates that gas pipeline spending prioritize safety and cost-effectiveness, directs the Public Service Commission to reject multi-year rate increases that do not demonstrate customer benefit, and prohibits utilities from charging ratepayers for expenses such as trade association memberships and private planes.
CBS News
17-04-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Baltimore Gas and Electric CEO to leave role for leadership position at parent company Excelon
Carim Khouzami, CEO of Baltimore Gas and Electric, will leave his position to take a leadership position at Excelon, BGE's parent company. The leadership changes come amid ongoing criticisms of the company. In recent months, Maryland leaders and ratepayers have called for a resolution to rising energy costs. Many BGE customers reported major increases in their energy bills, with some residents noting that their bills had doubled compared to the previous year. BGE stated that the increases stem from the need to improve aging infrastructure, increases in energy use—particularly due to cold weather, and the rising cost for the Empower Maryland efficiency releases report detailing fraudulent inspections On Tuesday, the Maryland Public Service Commission released a report alleging that a former BGE employee did not conduct proper inspections of gas infrastructure work and submitted falsified records over four years. According to the PSC report, BGE did not provide a list of jobs affected by the falsified inspections nor performed targeted remediation or verification work on the pipeline segments in question. On Wednesday, Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen responded by calling for an oversight hearing , emphasizing concerns about resident safety and BGE's accountability. "We are extremely concerned about the way our residents have been treated in the city of Baltimore," Cohen said Wednesday. "You can't sit there and tell me and the Baltimore City Council that your top priority is safety when we then hear you have an inspector who is not doing their job." Cohen has been vocal in advocating for reduced energy costs. Last month, he joined other city council members in calling for a halt to BGE's planned 2026 rate increase . Earlier this month, lawmakers passed the Next Generation Energy Act , a bill aimed at reducing utility costs statewide. This legislation mandates specific spending on gas pipelines and directs the Public Service Commission to halt plans for multi-year rate increases that do not benefit customers. Furthermore, it prohibits utilities from charging ratepayers for certain expenses, including trade association memberships and private planes. "Yesterday, members of the City Council sent a letter to BGE demanding answers about safety concerns," Cohen said in a statement Thursday. "Today, we learned that BGE's CEO Carim Khouzami will be leaving the utility for a role at Exelon. The Council's focus remains the same: we need real rate relief for our residents."
