February 24, 2026

Baltimore Sun

By Tinashe Chingarande

Gov. Wes Moore has introduced legislation that he says would make electricity more affordable by, among other things, giving Maryland households one-time $40 rebates on their utility bills. But lawmakers were skeptical Tuesday during committee hearings in the House and Senate.

“We all agree that we need solutions. We need them now. I know the one-time credit is a good example of immediate relief, but a lot of people will say that that’s kind of a short-term solution. It’s not fixing the underlying problem,” Del. Nick Allen, a Baltimore County Democrat, said during a hearing before the House Environment and Transportation Committee.

Sen. Cheryl Kagan, the Democratic vice chair of the Senate Education, Energy and Environment Committee, said the rebates in Moore’s new Lower Bills and Local Power Act are “too small to be noticed by most people.”

“The thing that bothered me the most [about the legislation] is that super wealthy people in their huge mansions who don’t worry about turning off the light or [who] keep their heat or air conditioning cranked up way up or way down — there’s no incentive [to change] in this,” Kagan said.

The governor was supposed to testify in person before both panels, but he never showed. Instead, his chief lobbyist, Jeremy Baker, spoke on his behalf because, Baker said, Moore had “something very unexpected come up.”

In both chambers, Baker described Moore’s energy policy as “an ongoing, iterative process” to “deliver relief and results” for Maryland households by promoting local power generation, modernizing Maryland’s existing power grids, holding utility companies accountable for rising energy costs and providing immediate relief to Marylanders through rebates.

“The economics are simple. PJM [Interconnection] has failed to meet the demand for energy supply; and when supply is limited, prices go up,” Baker said during the Senate committee hearing of the nation’s largest electricity transmitter, which manages power for about 67 million people across Maryland and 12 other states in the region.

Both Democrats and Republicans in both committees questioned the potency of the The $40 rebates Moore proposed are a continuation of a policy from the Next Generation Energy Act of 2025, which also gave Maryland residents $40 refunds on their electric bills. Moore’s new legislation would put $100 million toward another round of rebates, paid for through penalties electricity suppliers pay to the state for failing to meet mandated renewable energy targets.

Baker said that while the $40 refunds would provide short-term relief for Marylanders facing higher utility bills, they are a part of a much larger plan to lower energy costs.

The Moore administration is open to working with the General Assembly “on how best to deploy this $100 million for ratepayers,” Baker said, “but also just to try to get sort of more than just a one-time kind of benefit to consumers.”

Among the mid-term actions the legislation proposes are increasing reliance on solar power and stabilizing current clean energy projects, Kelly Speakes-Backman, director of Maryland Energy Administration, told the House committee of the governor’s proposed solutions that will take more time and funding to implement. Comprehensive grid improvements, such as building new and advanced transmission lines, are proposed as a long-term solution.

Sen. Jason Gallion, a Republican senator representing parts of Cecil and Harford counties, questioned whether Moore’s energy policy investments are financially sustainable for the state. He also asked whether Marylanders could save more if the state took actions similar to Pennsylvania, which pulled out of a climate conservation initiative Republicans in the state argued was raising energy costs.

Baker said Moore’s administration has “not had substantial conversations about that.”

Energy costs in Maryland have increased by 44% since 2020, according to state data. Much of that increase is tied to growing electricity demand, driven in part by the rapid expansion of data centers in Maryland and Northern Virginia.

Moore’s proposed legislation would fill the gap in funding for certain clean energy projects stalled by federal funding cuts and require utility companies to prioritize technologies that increase the amount of electricity delivered through Maryland’s power grids.

​​The proposal comes as lawmakers across both chambers grapple with rising utility bills and mounting concerns about generation capacity, grid reliability and regulatory oversight.

“This is obviously the hottest topic that we have,” Senate President Bill Ferguson told reporters ahead of the hearings. “Lawmakers are weighing multiple proposals aimed at affordability, increasing in-state generation and improving competition among retail energy suppliers,” he said.

Ferguson signaled growing frustration with how certain transmission projects have moved forward without meaningful state review. He said lawmakers recently learned that regulated utilities have used a federal approval pathway through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that limits the role of Maryland regulators and allows utilities to earn higher rates of return.

“We have real questions about efficacy,” Ferguson said of the Office of People’s Counsel, which represents ratepayers in utility matters. He added that lawmakers are exploring whether Maryland can impose additional guardrails or consultation requirements to ensure costs passed on to ratepayers are necessary.

Earlier this month, PJM Interconnection committed to prolonging its price cap on power supply until 2030 after Moore and 13 other governors from the mid-Atlantic met at the White House and requested that PJM provide a 15-year price certainty for new capacity and ensure that utility companies cover power costs when they bring on new, costly data centers without a plan to power them or to limit their electric consumption at peak hours.