Maryland’s Democratic leadership in the General Assembly on Monday introduced a package of bills geared toward expanding the state’s energy generation capacity, part of an effort to stop rapidly rising energy costs that have been passed on to utility customers.
The state’s ambitious climate goals, which include moving away from fossil fuel and embracing greener energy sources, have clashed this year with complaints about skyrocketing energy bills that have far outpaced inflation. The legislation introduced Monday aims to rein in those costs by, among other things, making it easier to get new projects approved.
“These bills will protect everyday Marylanders from rising energy costs,” House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) said at a news conference where the bills were announced. “And they will protect our commitment to a more affordable and sustainable future.”
A number of factors have been making power more expensive for Maryland residents. The state imports about 40 percent of its power from plants in neighboring states, requiring more transmission lines whose construction costs are passed on to utility rate payers. All of the state’s coal-burning power plants are scheduled to close by the end of the year, though there has been an effort to keep two of them operating longer to meet the escalating electricity demands in the region brought on by data centers in Virginia. And power companies have been seeing their delivery costs rise in recent years.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Katie Shepherd over at The Washington Post
