In the final episode of The Briefing Room energy series, host Dom Butchko turns the conversation to Annapolis and the broader policy choices shaping Maryland’s energy future. Tune in to the Conduit Street Podcast weekly, wherever you get your podcasts! Subscribe to the Conduit Street Blog and stay in the know!
As part of a broader push by federal leaders to encourage coal use, a defunct western Maryland plant is slated for major federal investment. As energy continues to be a central issue for policymakers at all levels of government, strategies for addressing affordability, reliability, and generation needs are diverging significantly between the state and federal levels. Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced a $700 million investment in coal infrastructure nationwide. The largest share, approximately…
Pennsylvania’s new data center standards may offer Maryland a useful model for balancing multiple goals. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is adding new guardrails around data center development as states confront the fast-growing demand for AI infrastructure. The state's new standards aim to balance economic development with concerns over energy costs, grid reliability, water use, environmental impacts, workforce needs, and local community input. Developers seeking state support would be expected to show how their projects address…
In Episode 4 of The Briefing Room, we continue our five-part energy series with a closer look at one of the fastest-growing and most controversial issues facing state and local governments: data centers. Tune in to the Conduit Street Podcast weekly, wherever you get your podcasts! Subscribe to the Conduit Street Blog and stay in the know!
We're back with another special edition of the Conduit Street Podcast, with the MACo team taking up several issues from this month's headlines, and trying to sort out which are the real stories (news) and which are more smoke than fire (noise). Tune in to the Conduit Street Podcast weekly, wherever you get your podcasts! Subscribe to the Conduit Street Blog and stay in the know!
In Episode 3 of The Briefing Room, Maryland’s energy picture comes into sharper focus. Host Dom Butchko is joined by Public Service Commission Chair Kumar Barve to unpack one of the biggest questions facing the state: where does our power actually come from? Tune in to the Conduit Street Podcast weekly, wherever you get your podcasts! Subscribe to the Conduit Street Blog and stay in the know!
A new federal report projects data centers are likely to drive high energy demand well into the 2050s. A new federal energy outlook underscores that data centers are becoming a major force in electricity planning. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), server-related energy use could account for as much as one-third of all commercial building electricity consumption by 2050 under a high-demand scenario. That grow is being driven in large part by artificial…
DoE emergency order allowing PJM to curtail power use at data centers underscores concerns over grid reliability in Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic. The PJM received emergency approval from the U.S. Department of Energy to temporarily reduce power use at data centers and other large energy users with backup generation during a stretch of hot weather across the Mid-Atlantic. The request came as the grid operator faced higher demand, planned spring maintenance outages, and tighter-than-usual reserve…
In Episode 2 of The Briefing Room’s energy series, Dom Butchko sits down with Jason Stanek, Executive Director of Governmental Services at PJM Interconnection, to unpack the role of energy regions in Maryland’s power future. Tune in to the Conduit Street Podcast weekly, wherever you get your podcasts! Subscribe to the Conduit Street Blog and stay in the know!
In Parts I and II of our analysis of HB 1532, the Utility RELIEF Act of 2026, we examined new requirements related to county permitting of residential rooftop solar and study language concerning future state action on siting large-scale energy projects. For Part III, the focus shifts from what the General Assembly passed to what may still need to be clarified. Over the past two years, lawmakers have enacted several significant energy measures, including the Next…