Gov. Wes Moore’s administration hailed the news this week that Maryland had won $130 million in federal funding for various climate initiatives.
As the state scrambles for the billions of dollars it will need to meet its ambitious climate mandates, state officials and environmental groups cast the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants as good news — and a momentum-builder as the state seeks to develop a clean energy economy.
But Maryland was awarded less than a third of what state agencies were seeking from the federal government. And it amounts to just a small fraction of the approximately $10 billion in new funding state officials believe Maryland will need over the next decade to hit its climate goals.
What’s more, a Moore administration official had warned this spring that a budget amendment regarding energy use in buildings, adopted in the final days of this year’s legislative session, could jeopardize the state’s application for a particular EPA climate grant. That grant application in fact was rejected — though there is no way of knowing whether the budget amendment factored into the federal government’s decision.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Josh Kurtz over at Maryland Matters
