Maryland’s Energy Crisis Wasn’t an Accident — It Was Legislated

By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews

Marylanders are, in Senate President Bill Ferguson’s words, “reeling” from unacceptably high energy bills. On that point, there is little disagreement. Utility costs have surged across the state, squeezing families, retirees, and small businesses already struggling with inflation and housing costs.

What deserves scrutiny is how Maryland arrived here — and why the same political leadership that helped create the crisis is now promising relief as if the damage were unavoidable.

A Crisis Years in the Making

For more than a decade, Annapolis has pursued aggressive energy mandates that prioritized speed over reliability and ideology over affordability. Policymakers pushed ambitious renewable targets, accelerated coal and fossil fuel plant retirements, and layered on regulatory requirements that made it harder — and more expensive — to maintain reliable baseload power.

The result was predictable: reduced in-state generation, growing dependence on out-of-state electricity, and exposure to volatile regional capacity markets governed by PJM Interconnection. When supply tightened and demand rose, Maryland ratepayers were left holding the bill.

None of this happened overnight. The warning signs were visible years ago.

Killing Baseload, Then Blaming the Grid

Maryland’s energy policy increasingly treated baseload power — the always-on generation that keeps prices stable — as an obstacle rather than a necessity. Plant closures were celebrated before adequate replacements were built. Natural gas projects were slowed or blocked. Nuclear expansion was effectively off the table.

Now lawmakers point to out-of-state power dependence as a problem, without acknowledging that it was the direct outcome of choices made in Annapolis.

Blaming PJM, utilities, or neighboring states only goes so far when Maryland lawmakers designed the constraints that made the system fragile.

Regulatory Games and Cost Shifting

Ferguson now promises to “rein in utility overspending” and force data centers to “pay their fair share.” While oversight matters, much of the regulatory complexity utilities navigate was created by the legislature itself.

When mandates multiply and timelines tighten, utilities respond by gaming rate structures, front-loading infrastructure spending, and passing compliance costs downstream. Residential customers — who have no leverage and no alternative provider — inevitably pay more.

Declaring surprise after the fact is not accountability.

Relief After the Damage Is Done

The General Assembly’s current approach focuses on rebates, assistance programs, and short-term relief. While helpful at the margins, these measures amount to treating symptoms rather than correcting the disease.

Affordability should have been a guiding principle before the crisis hit — not after bills doubled.

It is difficult to reconcile claims of urgency now with years of policymaking that dismissed affordability concerns as secondary or temporary.

A Different Path Forward

If lawmakers are serious about protecting Marylanders, energy policy must be grounded in reliability, realism, and cost discipline:

• Restore baseload capacity as a priority, not an afterthought
• Slow mandates until infrastructure is proven and affordable
• Stop using ratepayers as shock absorbers for policy experiments
• Treat affordability as equal to environmental goals — not subordinate

Energy transitions are complex, but they are not immune to basic economics. You cannot mandate scarcity, restrict supply, and then act shocked when prices surge.

Leadership Means Owning the Results

Marylanders deserve honesty from their leaders. High energy bills were not a random shock or a federal inevitability. They were the foreseeable outcome of years of policy choices made in Annapolis.

Promising relief now may be politically convenient, but real accountability requires acknowledging how we got here — and committing to a course correction that puts families first, before the next crisis arrives.

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