MARYLAND (WBFF) — The Utility Relief Act was recently signed into law, promises energy relief for Marylanders. While the bill is estimated to save at least $150 a year, customers won’t see that savings until 2027.
The bill includes a number of provisions, including funding for certain clean energy projects, mechanisms to strengthen the grid, it ensures data centers cover more of the costs associated with their energy demand, limits the costs utility companies can pass to consumers and it makes changes to the EmPOWER Maryland Energy efficiency program.
“The bipartisan Utility Relief Act speeds up new energy generation. It invests in local clean energy and it stops big corporations from shifting their costs onto taxpayers,” said Governor Wes Moore.
“So for example, the new laws already saved Pepco customers from an $8.6 million rate increase by stopping the Public Service Commission for giving the utility company money up front instead of making them show their spending is necessary,” said Emily Scarr with Maryland PIRG.
The bulk of the estimated $150 annual savings will come from the changes to the EmPOWER program, which has an associated fee that appears on monthly energy bills. While lawmakers approved roughly $80 in energy rebates last year, they took a different approach this session, lowering the EmPOWER surcharge. While other provisions of the bill are also designed to lower costs, it is not clear by how much.
The two major changes to the EmPOWER program were reducing the goals and removing the gas programs, which will go into effect in January 2027.
“They’re putting $100 million into paying for energy efficiency upgrades, so we don’t see them on our bills, but then they also temporarily reduced the program goals, which is where a lot of that $150 is supposed to be coming from,” Scarr said.
“Instead of getting a rebate, you’re just not going to pay the money at all,” she added.
“The rebate programs were, general consensus was that was not really, fully appreciated by ratepayers. It was something that was hard to see,” Senate President Bill Ferguson said during a March press conference.
However, some Republicans have pushed back on the bill, saying it does not provide meaningful relief.
“They did not pass any appreciable relief,” Sen. Justin Ready said. “At best, you could say they handed you a little stipend back from money you’ve already overpaid, and they’ve done nothing really appreciably to deal with the long term problem of energy production in the state.”
“We’re going to talk about how this is relief, the $12 bucks a month that starts in January, in June, we know people’s bills are going to go up,” he added.
While there are many factors at play contributing to the rising energy costs, such as supply prices and distribution prices, Scarr said it’s a problem that will take time to solve.
“It’s taken us couple decades to get into this problem with energy prices. It’s going to take a while to get out,” she said.
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