Maryland Energy Talk

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 proposed new energy projects wait i...

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 dawn every day so he could write a ne...

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 service to Maryland and to your co...

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 context, I wanted to talk with Marylan...

Today 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 many of our lives, prescription drugs. 

To te...

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 many helpful insights that are direc...

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 can’t understand our energy policie...

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 and Speaker of the House put together...

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 our lives. 

I’m thrilled to say that B...

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 transportation sector is the Transport...

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 entity that has enormous control over o...

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 property values and as a result, prope...

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 contracts with low rates and the pro...

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 down with Maryland’s People’s Counsel...

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 Pollution Reduction Plan

Energy Infor...