After a yearslong campaign by environmental advocates, top Maryland lawmakers want to cut off a program that has paid tens of millions of dollars in green energy subsidies to incinerators that generate electricity by burning trash.

The move is aimed at cutting back state support for polluting forms of energy as Maryland tries to eliminate its greenhouse gas emissions.

What’s not clear is whether the state’s two trash-burning incinerators would survive if lawmakers turn off the faucet.

Top legislators in Annapolis and environmental advocates both stress that this year’s legislation isn’t a measure to shut anybody down. But they say it’s time for Maryland to stop treating burned garbage the same way it treats wind turbines or solar panels.

Officials with WIN Waste Innovations, the owner and operator of the incinerator in South Baltimore, told lawmakers that the impacts would be severe and could even lead to closure.

The bill poses “a significant threat” to the Baltimore plant’s viability, said Mary Urban, the company’s communications director.

Since looping incinerators into the program in 2011, the subsidy has paid more than $100 million to incinerators in both Maryland and Virginia, according to a report last year by progressive and environmental groups, which estimated that this payout could triple by 2030. The WIN Waste facility in Baltimore collected $15.5 million between 2020 and 2023, with annual payments increasing fivefold as electricity prices climbed over that period, according to figures Urban shared in an email.

Lawmakers look poised to remove the incinerator subsidy this session. The bill was introduced by the Senate’s top lawmaker, Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat from Baltimore, and also appears to have strong House support. Del. C.T. Wilson, chair of the House committee considering the proposal, said Thursday that he remains “very supportive” of reclassifying incinerators.

Other polluting fuel sources would continue collecting renewable energy credits, including facilities that burn chicken manure and methane gas from landfills.

While lawmakers may think WIN Waste is comfortably positioned thanks to high electricity prices, Urban pointed to steps the regional grid operator is taking to moderate cost increases.

Urban also argued that if incinerators are removed from the program, Maryland would end up awarding more of its green credits to out-of-state energy producers even as it searches for ways to increase its own energy generation. The renewable energy program supports energy generation beyond Maryland borders and has already paid millions to an incinerator in Fairfax, Virginia.

Environmental and community advocates rallied outside the State House ahead of Thursday’s hearing, some wearing gas masks and others hoisting signs calling on lawmakers to “reclaim renewable energy.”

Several residents detailed their experiences with respiratory challenges and cancer, which they believe is a result of living in the shadow of the incinerator and other industrial neighbors.

WIN Waste’s facility, located between Interstate 95 and the Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in Baltimore. Its emissions also include toxins like nitrous oxide and sulfur dioxide, which can contribute to respiratory problems and other health consequences.

While it’s in an industrial area, neighborhoods such as Westport and Pigtown, which are largely low-income and non-white, are less than a half-mile away.

The company notes that it’s in compliance with both local and federal regulatory standards and has invested $45 million in pollution controls in recent years.

Maryland incinerators first earned their controversial distinction in the state’s top tier for “renewable” sources in 2011, as lawmakers looked to boost an enormous new waste-burning facility planned for South Baltimore.

Ferguson represents the South Baltimore district where developers tried to build that incinerator. He recalled Thursday that the original proposal to designate incinerators as clean power, back in 2011, was the first time he broke ranks with legislative leadership.

That incinerator was never built, but the subsidy remains.

Also backing the bill are Mayor Brandon Scott and leaders on Baltimore’s City Council, which overwhelmingly passed a resolution earlier this week supporting the proposal.

Baltimore leaders have pledged to transition away from incinerating garbage for years. But with Scott’s support, the city extended its contract with WIN Waste five years ago, agreeing to keep sending trash to the facility until 2031. Last year, advocates filed a federal civil rights complaint alleging that the city has failed to chart a course away from burning trash.

About a third of trash picked up by city haulers in 2021 went to the incinerator. WIN Waste, meanwhile, processes anywhere from 650,000 to 750,000 tons of trash annually, accepting around 200,000 tons each from Baltimore City and Baltimore County last year, according to figures shared by the company.

This year’s legislation would also cut off credits for Maryland’s other incinerator, located in a rural area of Montgomery County.

Unlike Baltimore, Montgomery County owns its incinerator. The county reports that it received around $29 million in renewable energy credits between 2022 and 2024, meaning local revenues likely would take a hit if lawmakers rebrand incinerators.

That county has pledged to transition away from incineration, but, according to reporting last month by the TV station WUSA9, officials there are weighing a five-year extension that would keep the plant running past its 2026 contract expiration date.

Frazier Blaylock with Reworld Waste, the company that runs the county facility, said this bill may not shut down their incinerator immediately, but “certainly sooner rather than later.”

Jon Monger, director of the Montgomery County’s Department of Environmental Protection, asked lawmakers Thursday to delay implementing the bill for an extra year to allow Montgomery County time to prepare.

But he spoke in favor of cutting off the credits.

“It’s important that we walk the walk and promote clean energy in Maryland with all available tools,” he said.