What are the policies?
- Maryland’s current climate plan includes two longstanding energy policies. One, called the Renewable Portfolio Standard, sets a goal to have just over half of the state’s electricity come from renewables by 2030. Maryland is also a member of a multistate carbon trading program, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, that limits power plant emissions and requires plants to pay for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit. Money from auctioning off these emissions “allowances” is reinvested in state energy programs and incentives.
- Legislation passed since the 2022 Climate Solutions Now Act has expanded goals for offshore wind and energy storage, and made a community solar program permanent.
- The POWER Act sets a goal of 8,500 megawatts of offshore wind by 2031. That would be equal to over half of Maryland’s electricity sales in 2023.
- A 2023 bill established the Maryland Energy Storage Program and set a goal of 3,000 megawatts of energy storage in Maryland by 2034. The state legislature passed a bill this year that includes a process for procuring batteries that would store energy for later use, including possible energy from renewable sources.
- A community solar pilot program became permanent in 2023. The legislation requires that 40% of a community solar system’s energy goes to low- to moderate-income Marylanders.
- Gov. Wes Moore signed an executive order in 2024 that requires climate plans from every state agency, calls for a plan to reach 100% clean electricity in Maryland by 2035 and pushes for a new regional limit on power plant emissions through the multistate carbon trading program.
Who’s paying for it?
It depends on the program.
- To reach the state’s goal of 50% of electricity coming from renewables, electricity suppliers have to buy renewable energy credits from producers. The cost of renewable energy credits is passed on to Marylanders through their utility bills. Companies can pay a fee instead of buying a renewable energy credit, and that money flows to the Strategic Energy Investment Fund, where it’s funneled into funding for electric vehicle chargers, renewables, community solar and other clean energy projects.
- A regional carbon trading program funds energy projects and grants. When power plants buy CO2 allowances at auctions, that money goes to the Strategic Energy Investment Fund.
- The battery storage legislation passed this spring is twofold: utility companies would construct some storage and other developers would build the rest.
- The POWER Act has the Department of General Services handle offshore wind purchasing. That makes sure the cost isn’t reflected in Marylanders’s utility bills.
What progress has been made so far?
- The state achieved less than half of its renewable energy goal in 2023, with suppliers paying fines to close the gap.
- The Moore administration has been distributing between $100 million and $150 million annually to clean energy projects. Grants from the administration in 2023 went to a host of programs focused on clean energy, decarbonization and energy efficiency. Funding comes from the carbon trading and renewable energy credit programs.
- The regional carbon trading program is in the middle of being reviewed, and states are working on a stricter emissions limit. Since the program began in the mid-2000s, Maryland power plants covered by the regional carbon trading program have cut their emissions by 62% and the state has received over $1 billion.
- Maryland ranks low among states on the regional grid for wind power generation, with most of its in-state wind energy provided by wind farms in Western Maryland.
- One offshore wind project in Maryland has federal approval, and would be built off the coast of Ocean City — but the Trump administration’s opposition to offshore wind has thrown a wrench in new project development.
- The Maryland Energy Storage Program was in the research stage as of the end of 2024.
- The community solar pilot program became permanent in 2023.
Sources for this Q&A: 5 Million Trees for Maryland; Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington; CalMatters; Chesapeake Climate Action Network; Dr. Donald Boesch (president emeritus of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science); Industry Dive; Inside Climate News; International Energy Agency; Maryland Department of Agriculture; Maryland Department of the Environment; Maryland Department of Legislative Services; Maryland Department of Natural Resources; Maryland Department of Planning; Maryland Department of Transportation; Maryland Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Administration; Maryland Energy Administration; Maryland General Assembly; Maryland Matters; Maryland Office of People’s Counsel; Maryland Public Service Commission; Maryland Register (Maryland Division of State Documents); Montgomery Community Media; NPR; Office of Gov. Wes Moore; Office of the Attorney General of California; Politico; Reuters; S&P Global; The Baltimore Sun; The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (rggi.org); The White House; U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center; U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration; U.S. Energy Information Administration; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth.