Maryland has two big, pressing problems with its energy system: The state relies on energy produced elsewhere to address ballooning demand, and the steep increases in consumers’ utility bills are only expected to get worse.
The solution, top lawmakers said Monday, is building more power plants.
Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones said the path to greater “energy independence” for Maryland requires building more of what wonks call “dispatchable” power — energy that can be cranked on or off to meet demand.
That can refer to zero-emissions sources of power like batteries and nuclear plants. But, often, it refers to fossil fuels like natural gas.
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How exactly top lawmakers hope to encourage development of new power sources isn’t clear — Ferguson and Jones didn’t share the language of their bill on Monday — but they painted their plan as a way to reduce energy costs while furthering the state’s clean energy ambitions.
“This law will ensure that we have the energy we need today, but make sure that we have a bridge to a net-zero future tomorrow,” Ferguson said at a news conference outside the State House.
Not everyone is convinced.
Climate advocates pushed back Monday, warning that the proposal opens the door to building a new natural gas plant, which would produce more planet-warming emissions and leave customers footing the bill even as the state tries to transition away from fossil fuels.
Ferguson and Jones said their proposal would instruct regulators at the Maryland Public Service Commission to solicit and approve development of new, flexible power sources to replace energy the state has historically gotten from dirtier sources like coal.
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The proposal also looks to encourage new nuclear power development, and Ferguson said it would prioritize approvals of clean energy sources like wind, solar and batteries.
Still, Maryland Sierra Club director Josh Tulkin said he’s concerned that the leadership proposal puts a thumb on the scale of energy approvals, undermining regulators’ responsibility to assess costs and environmental consequences of new development.
“In a worst-case scenario, if Maryland buys into the idea that a reliable grid requires fossil fuels,” he said, “then it could be very harmful to Maryland’s climate goals,” as well as to air quality and public health.
Specifics about what how new power sources would fit into the region’s power system, where they would go or how much energy they might provide, would need to be determined.
Maryland imports about 40% of its electricity. The state’s natural gas generation has tripled since 2015 and accounted for just over 40% of the state’s electricity in 2023, according the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
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Interest in new natural gas development comes as the private sector, too, is increasingly eyeing the fossil fuel — a response to intense new demands driven by data centers and artificial intelligence.
Just in the last month, NextEra Energy, one of the world’s biggest renewable power developers, announced plans to start building natural gas plants to feed the data center boom, and Constellation Energy, the Baltimore-based nuclear energy leader, paid $16.4 billion to acquire a juggernaut in natural gas power.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s opposition to renewable energy raises questions about Maryland’s plans for huge offshore wind developments.
Building new power plants can take years, but Ferguson expressed confidence Monday that his plan will get the ball rolling quickly. He said he hopes state regulators approve a project before the end of the year.
That may be easier said than done.
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At a meeting of the House Economic Matters Committee last month, officials from the region’s power grid operator, PJM Interconnection, told lawmakers that developers will be hard-pressed to build a new natural gas plant in Maryland.
For one, Maryland’s climate goals — the state wants to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045 — don’t look friendly to fossil fuel sources, PJM executive director Jason Stanek said.
Del. C.T. Wilson, the committee chairman, pressed PJM on what expressly bars this kind of development in Maryland. Does it just boil down to an anti-fossil-fuels reputation? he asked.
“I think it’s fair to say reputation,” Stanek responded. “The goals are the goals.”
If this plan does yield new natural gas generation in Maryland, Ferguson expressed confidence Monday that the state could develop in a climate-friendly way. The legislation requires that any new natural gas plant deploy technology to capture emissions and convert to clean hydrogen once that technology is commercially ready, he said.
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Still, deploying carbon capture on natural gas plants is unproven at scale and can be extremely expensive, and advocates like Brittany Baker, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said commitments to pursuing carbon capture and hydrogen only make the plan more costly.
She called the legislative leadership’s vision for recruiting new power sources to Maryland “extremely concerning.”
Along with the package rolled out Monday by Democratic leadership, lawmakers are considering several other approaches to resolve Maryland’s power crunch — including proposals to make it easier to get batteries onto the power grid, encourage offshore wind development and expand nuclear power.
Other top Democrats joined Ferguson and Jones on Monday to unveil two companion bills. One, introduced by Sen. Katie Fry Hester and Del. Brian Crosby, seeks to establish better energy planning in Maryland, and the other, backed by Wilson and Sen. Brian Feldman would make it easier to site and approval battery and solar projects.
Baker and other climate advocates called these aspects of the Democratic energy plan more promising.
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To Republicans like Sen. Justin Ready, the Senate minority whip, Monday’s news conference served as an acknowledgement of Maryland’s “failed energy policy.”
Ready expressed support for new Democratic interest in nuclear development, but said the state lost a decade spending time on offshore wind farms that haven’t been built.
“Nothing we really heard today is going to bring immediate relief for ratepayers,” Ready said.
Asked how the state would proceed if energy companies don’t act on Maryland’s invitation to build here, Ferguson said that’s the point.
“Hopefully we don’t have to deal with that,” he said. “That’s why we’re passing the bill.”
Baltimore Banner reporter Pamela Wood contributed to this article.
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