MARYLAND (WBFF) — As lawmakers quickly work to pass the final bills of the legislative session, one bill that has yet to be finalized is the Utility RELIEF Act, a sweeping energy bill designed to provide at least $150 in annual savings, strengthen the grid, manage data centers and increase energy supply.
“Obviously we’re finalizing the crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s on an agreement, which the Senate President indicated, we will likely roll out on Monday, and that obviously took up a tremendous amount of time, very, very comprehensive,” Sen. Brian Feldman said.
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Despite differences in the House and Senate versions of the bill, in a joint statement on Wednesday, Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk said they “reached an agreement on comprehensive legislation,” but were “working together to finalize the precise legislative language.”
“We’ve taken significant steps to make Maryland more affordable,” Sen. Ferguson said.
“We did that number one by lowering utility bills, which we will pass on Monday with the Utility RELIEF Act of 2026,” he added.
“I think a lot of the differences evolved around that forecast test years,” Senate Minority Leader Stephen Hershey said. “That’s the ability for utility companies to do rate making by projected expenditures and revenues that come in and say, we think that this is going to happen, therefore we’ll set the rates that way. And then the Public Service Commission has the ability to evaluate and reconcile the rates after that.”
“We wanted to just, you know, slow it down a little bit,” he added. “The House wanted to stop, stop it all the way. I think the compromise is going to be for one year, we’re going to pause and then let the PSC study that.”
Lawmakers estimate the bill will save customers about $150 annually, which largely comes from changes made to the EmPOWER Maryland program. However, many lawmakers argue the cost savings in the long-term could be even greater.
“Maryland will be a leader in how we regulate data centers,” Sen. Ferguson said.
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With data centers contributing largely causing increased energy supply costs, through the bill, data centers would be obligated to pay for improvements to the grid needed to accommodate the demand they cause.
However, some Republicans, like Sen. Hershey argue the legislation doesn’t go far enough.
“Democrat leadership are going to, you know, celebrate $150 of rate payer relief,” Sen. Hershey said. “We just didn’t think that that went for far enough during the during the the budget, or bill debate. You know, we as Republicans, had a lot of really good ideas that would save money immediately, and a lot of them are because of these green energy policies that are put in place that just cost so much money.”
Some of the Republican proposals included withdrawing from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and eliminating the EmPOWER energy efficiency program. Many Democrats have argued the programs are beneficial, and that those proposals could be problematic, or more costly, in the long-term.
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