With the 2024 Legislative Session rapidly approaching, MACo is profiling some major issues that stand to gather attention in the General Assembly.
Addressing climate change has been and will continue to be the predominant issue of our time. In prior legislative sessions, the Maryland General Assembly set ambitious goals for transitioning the state away from fossil fuels and towards electrification. The DLS Issue Papers provide a snapshot of the current goals, the progress toward meeting those goals, and future work that lies ahead:
The State continues to make progress toward its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets established under the Climate Solutions Now Act. Further policy action in sectors such as electricity generation, transportation, and buildings have been recommended to help the State achieve its reductions under the Act. Because the State will also need to rely on energy policy changes to meet its reductions, Governor Wes Moore has accelerated the State’s clean energy targets, committing to achieving 100% clean energy by 2035.
Statewide Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions
Chapter 38 of 2022, the Climate Solutions Now Act (CSNA), made broad changes to the State’s approach to reducing statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The CSNA requires the State to reduce statewide GHG emissions by 60% from 2006 levels by 2031 and achieve net-zero GHG emissions by 2045. To achieve these reductions, the Act, among other things, increases energy efficiency and conservation program requirements, requires the purchase of zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) in the State fleet, and establishes energy conservation requirements for buildings. The Act also establishes several planning and reporting requirements to monitor progress and inform decision making going forward.
The single biggest hurdle will be to transition to 100 percent renewable energy. Several challenges stand in front of this goal, including technical considerations around adequate infrastructure, balancing preservation with renewable generation, and the location of generating installations near areas of high demand.
100% Clean Energy 2035 Goal
On March 29, 2023, Governor Wes Moore announced his commitment to moving Maryland toward achieving 100% clean energy by 2035. To accomplish this, the Governor announced that the State would aim to quadruple the amount of energy produced by offshore wind from about 2 gigawatts to 8.5 gigawatts of power.
One possible means of achieving a 100% clean energy goal would be through adjustments to the RPS. Established under § 7-703 of the Public Utilities Article, the RPS requires that a specified portion of retail electricity sold by electricity suppliers in the State comes from “renewable” sources, as statutorily defined. Consequently, the RPS incentivizes renewable energy growth and market stability as well as fossil fuel emissions reductions. While the RPS has been subject to legislative changes since its implementation in 2006, the current statewide goal is that 52.5% of the State’s energy be derived from renewable sources by 2030.
Chapter 757 of 2019, also known as the Clean Energy Jobs Act, directed the Power Plant Research Program (PPRP) in the Department of Natural Resources to conduct a study on, among other things, the feasibility, costs, and benefits of increasing the RPS to a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2040 – a slightly longer timeline than the one more recently proposed by the Governor. PPRP modeled a 100% RPS scenario along with several other related options. Under the 100% clean energy scenario modeled by PPRP, the State would realize greater nuclear energy generation and an increase in natural gas capacity with carbon capture technology. A 100% clean energy scenario would allow the State to export most of its carbon captured natural gas to neighboring states within the region served by PJM Interconnection, allowing the State to become a net exporter of energy by 2028, earlier than under any of the other scenarios modeled. Overall, PPRP stated that the “results point to a need for ‘clean firm’ capacity, especially in the latter half of the forecast period, to meet Maryland GHG emission reduction goals.” Thus, according to PPRP, the State will likely need to consider utilizing non-weather-dependent, always-available, zero-emissions energy, such as nuclear energy, to meet the State’s clean energy goals.
