Maryland Energy Talk
by Jamie DeMarco
Maryland Energy Talk explores how we can build a cleaner, more affordable, reliable, energy system for Maryland. We will explore new ideas about energy and review the fundamentals of our energy system.
Episodes
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The Solar Power Purchase Agreement Saving Maryland $300 million
In August Governor Moore announced that his administration had entered into a Power Purchase Agreement for 300 megawatts of solar in Maryland that would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in reduced energy bills. This procurement, done through the Department of General Services, is in...
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The Perfect Storm Increasing Energy Bills
Why are energy bills so high? What do you say when people ask you that question? It’s complicated right? Anyone with a one sentence explanation is either trying to sell you something or doesn’t fully know what they are talking about. We have talked before on Maryland Energy Talk about why bills…
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Maryland is About to Unleash Distributed Batteries
Thanks to the Utility Relief Act of 2026 and the Next Generation Energy Act of 2026 the Public Service Commission is currently running a utility scale battery procurement that could build roughly 900 megawatts of battery storage. That is great news, and it has gotten a lot of attention, but there...
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Maryland's Moratorium on Data Centers
Data centers are driving up our electricity bills and increasing our air pollution. According to Monitoring Analytics, between 2025 and 2028 data center demand will increase costs on Maryland’s regional electricity grid by $23 billion That comes out to an average of $343 for every person on our...
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The Maryland General Assembly Just Turbocharged Our Greenbank
You may have missed it in the Utility RELIEF Act of 2026 or in the budget, but one of the most consequential and long- lasting provisions was a significant investment in the state’s greenbank, the Maryland Clean Energy Center (MCEC). I had MCEC on Maryland Energy Talk last year, and at that time...
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Solar Just Saved the Grid From a Crisis Caused by Coal and Gas Plants
Something happened on July 2nd that really turned conventional wisdom about renewables on its head. Then, on July 8th, something that I think is even more exciting happened. They were both so significant I’m making a video about them, especially because I haven’t heard anyone acknowledge this…
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Everything You Need to Know About Maryland Plug-In Solar
As of today, July 1st, it is legal, under certain conditions, to plug solar panels directly into a wall outlet in Maryland. Plug-in solar legislation is sweeping the nation with more than 20 states considering similar policies. While the general concept is simple, put the plug-in the outlet, the...
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What Are Forecasted Test Years?
In the negotiations between the House and the Senate on the Utility RELIEF Act this year, one of the major sticking points was whether to get rid of forecasted test years, as pushed for by the Speaker of the House. The compromise paused the practice for a year, asked the PSC to study the issue…
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Adrian Boafo on Clean Energy, Climate Change, and Data Centers
Delegate Adrian Boafo has served in the Maryland legislature for the past four years. In those years Delegate Boafo established himself as a champion in the climate change and clean energy space, introducing some of the boldest and most ambitious bills in the legislature including the RENEW Act…
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Senator Hester on Data Center Policy in Maryland
The tidal wave of data centers flooding onto our grid is a major reason why energy bills are going up. A recent report from Monitoring Analytics found that data centers are currently costing customers on Maryland’s regional grid over $9 billion in increased energy costs annually. If data centers...
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The CHERISH Act
Air pollution is a significant threat to human health and well being. Particulate Matter of 2.5 micrometers and smaller, known as PM 2.5, is only one of common air pollutants and it causes 85-200 thousand deaths a year in the United States. It has been well documented that the sources of air...
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Maryland's Largest Solar Farm is on a Coal Mine
In December of 2025 a final switch was flipped and 160 megawatts of electricity started flowing onto Maryland’s grid from the biggest solar farm in the entire state, the Backbone power project in Garrett County. To give you a sense of how big 160 megawatts is, this project will produce more...
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Chair Korman on Energy Issues in 2026
Among the many changes made by Speaker Pena-Melnyk is moving energy issues from the Economic Matters Committee to the Environment and Transportation Committee. This is a change represents a shift in how energy issues are contextualized, from primarily being a matter of economic development, to...
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Reducing Transmission Costs
Building new transmission is extremely costly and highly controversial but at the same time we know that more transmission will be needed on our electric grid as energy demand continues to grow. Is it possible for us to ensure the grid is capable of moving energy where it needs to go without...
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What is a Zero-Emission Heating Equipment Standard?
In his executive order on climate and energy issues in June of 2024 Governor Moore directed his agencies to design and implement a Zero-Emission Heating Equipment Standard and a Clean Heat Standard to support it. As far as policies to reduce pollution and costs for homeowners go, this is the gold...
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Vice-Chair Charkoudian’s Affordable Solar Act
Maryland has had policies to boost in-state solar generation for about two decades now, and those investments have paid off significantly. Solar accounts for 7% of the electricity Maryland generates, which is more than we generate from coal. Pennsylvania, which has practically no solar investment...
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PJM Didn’t Hit capacity. What Does That Mean?
On December 17th 2025 something happened at PJM that has never happened before. At their regularly scheduled Capacity Auction, PJM did not hit capacity. If you are like me, it’s clear to you that this is bad news, but you aren’t precisely sure what that means. To break it down and share his...
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Electrifying Baltimore's District Heating
Many of the buildings that make up the Baltimore Skyline are heated by an underground network of steam moved through pipes. That district heating system is owned and operated by a company called Vicinity. Right now, that steam is almost entirely generated through combustion. However, Vicinity has...
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Maryland's Most Successful Energy Program
Whether you care about energy costs, climate change, job creation or grid reliability there is one program in Maryland that has been more successful than any other, and that is the EmPOWER Program the state’s flagship energy efficiency program. According to recent analysis, Every dollar invested…
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Secretary McIlwain on meeting Maryland’s climate mandates
In 2022 Maryland passed the Climate Solutions Now Act, a law that is so popular that Governor Hogan chose not to veto it in an election year. Maryland is now required by law to eliminate our net greenhouse gas pollution by 2045 and hit a 60% by 2031 benchmark. The very next year, in 2023 Maryland...
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The Coal Plants Costing Maryland Billions
I think most people following Maryland energy issues are aware that Brandon Shores and Wagner coal plants are closing because coal cannot compete in today’s energy market, but far fewer know the full story of how these two coal plants, built more than 50 years ago, ended up costing Maryland rate...
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Maryland’s Large Building Energy Success Story
Appliances used to heat our buildings emit three times more air pollution than all the power plants in Maryland combined. As we have talked about before, addressing this pollution in large existing buildings has tremendous benefits, and Building Energy Performance Standards or BEPS are an...
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Chair Hoover on the Future of Gas in Maryland
In February of 2023 the Maryland People’s Counsel initiated a docket at the Public Service Commission to consider the future of gas in Maryland. That docket has already resulted in meaningful changes to how Maryland regulates gas infrastructure, and the process is far from complete. To talk about...
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Something New is Happening With Solar
Solar appears to have reached some kind of super critical singularity, or tipping point. Whatever you want to call it, something is happening with solar that has never happened before and that many people never thought would never be possible. In the first half of 2025 China installed more than…
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Why Energy Bills Are Going Up and How To Lower Them
Energy prices are going up and it is a real problem. Families are being forced to make difficult decisions about whether to heat their home, or put food on the table. What is driving up these energy bills? Exactly how much have they gone up, and what can people do to lower their bills? To help...
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The Magic of the Maryland Clean Energy Center
If you could take every dollar the state invests in clean energy and turn it into two dollars, that would be a super power, but much more than that The Maryland Clean Energy Center has proven that it is able to turn every one dollar invested into clean energy into 14 dollars. Given that the state...
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A New Way To Scale Up Distributed Energy Resources
The demand for electricity in our region is projected to increase sharply in the coming years, driven largely by data centers. We know that the fastest, most cost effective way to make sure the grid has the capacity to accommodate this increased demand is through the use of Distributed Energy...
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A New Report on How PJM is Increasing Energy Costs
Energy prices in Maryland are going up. They rose in January of this year mainly because of utility overspending on distribution networks, this summer and fall, bills are going to go up again but this time because of increases to the supply part of the bill, the responsibility of our region’s…
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Mike's New Book: The Lost Trees of Willow Ave.
Mike Tidwell is the founder and executive director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network and a successful author. For the past 20 years he has dedicated practically every day of his life to doing the most he possibly can to reduce the harmful impacts of climate change. In the past two years or...
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Session Recap 2025: A Deep Dive Into The Leadership Energy Bills
Congratulations on finishing the legislative session of 2025 everyone! I want to say a heartfelt and genuine thank you to every lawmaker and every staffer who worked this session. As we are seeing on the federal level, a functioning government is not something to be taken for granted, and it is...
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The Benefits of Advanced Clean Cars and Trucks
Advanced Clean Cars II is, according to MDE, Maryland’s single largest climate pollution reduction strategy over the long term, and Advanced Clean Trucks is a second program having a significant positive impact on Maryland’s transition off of fossil fuels. Unfortunately, there is legislation…
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The Prescription Drug Affordability Board
In this episode we take a break from our normal energy focused programing to talk about a historic and nationally significant bill moving through the legislature in Maryland, the Prescription Drug Affordability Board HB424/SB357. At a time when prices for everything are going up, Maryland…
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New Modeling on Maryland’s Electricity Grid
In Annapolis there is much debate about what Maryland’s electric grid does or doesn’t need, one thing that has been decidedly absent is any publicly available modeling about Maryland’s electric grid. That’s why I am so thrilled that the respected modeling firm Center for Climate Strategies has…
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What's in a REC?
I have a real treat to share with you today, a conversation with Delegate Charkoudian explaining what a Renewable Energy Credit is! This is another one from the vault, and this is actually the very first conversation we recorded together, the one that got this whole podcast started. A Renewable...
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What's The Deal With All The Energy Bills?
I think everyone in Annapolis is aware there are a lot of energy bills flying around, but not everyone is fully up to date on each of the bills, what they do, and how they interact. The goal of this episode is to give you a crash course on the biggest electricity generation bills this year and…
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Amending BEPS
In 2022 the Maryland General Assembly enacted Building Energy Performance Standards or BEPS. More than a dozen states and municipalities have enacted BEPS and it’s easy to see why. The program has benefits for air quality, energy affordability, grid stability, and quality of life. As Churchill…
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The Transportation and Climate Alignment Act
Transportation is the largest single source of climate pollution in Maryland. Fully one third of all our emissions come from this sector. For reference, the second biggest source of emissions in Maryland is electricity generation which makes up only about one fifth of total emissions. The...
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What is PJM?
In the summer of 2024 I sat down with Delegate Lorig Charkoudian to record a conversation about what PJM is and how it affects our energy policy here in Maryland. This was before the launch of this podcast, and we simply uploaded our conversation onto Youtube where you can still find it. This is...
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Senator Van Hollen on Taxpayer Relief Through the RENEW Act
Right now, Marylanders are paying for the costs of climate change. Higher tides, hotter heat waves, and heavier rain events are all damaging infrastructure and requiring expensive repairs. Public schools that never needed AC for over a hundred years now need to have AC installed at great expense…
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Maryland's Landmark Protection From Retail Suppliers
In 2024 the Maryland General Assembly passed the Electricity and Gas - Retail Supply - Regulation and Consumer Protection Act, better known as SB 1, introduced by Senate President Pro-Tem Malcolm Augustine and Vice-Chair of the House Economic Matters committee Brian Crosby. SB 1 set a national...
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STRIDE, The Program Driving Up Everyone's Energy Bill
Many Marylanders are seeing record high gas bills this year because of a little known Maryland program called STRIDE In 2013 Maryland lawmakers created the STRIDE program to fix leaks in certain gas pipes. At the time, no one anticipated it would result in utilities building entirely new gas...
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How to Generate More Electricity in Maryland, Fast
Maryland needs to generate more electricity in state. As Delegate Lorig Charkoudian explains, the fastest, cheapest way to do that is through the Abundant, Affordable, Clean Energy Act, or AACE Act that she and Senator Brooks are introducing in 2025. The quickest, most reliable way to get more in...
About this show
Maryland Energy Talk explores how we can build a cleaner, more affordable, reliable, energy system for Maryland. We will explore new ideas about energy and review the fundamentals of our energy system.
Hosted by
Jamie DeMarco
Categories