Many Democrats in Annapolis — from the governor to the House and Senate leadership — are clearly in denial. First, we saw it with the budget deficit — some Democrats attempt to blame former Gov. Larry Hogan, and others insist that the $10 billion Blueprint for Maryland’s Future plan has not contributed to the shortfall. Now, as Maryland’s ratepayers are getting crushed under the weight of high electricity costs, Maryland Democrats are, in the governor’s case, ignoring the problem or, in the case of the General Assembly, feigning shock, blaming others and offering false “fixes.”

For many years, Maryland ratepayers have been the metaphorical frog in the pot of water. Through their reckless environmental policies that sacrifice our ratepayers on the altar of clean energy, the Democrat-controlled General Assembly has been gradually increasing the pressure on energy prices. Now, those rates have spiked at a time of increased usage, and our ratepayers are finding themselves in boiling-hot water.

In response to the outcry from families crushed by high energy bills, those who have advocated for the foolish policies responsible for these rate hikes have offered a series of measures they claim will provide affordable, reliable energy to lower utility bills. That sounds great, but the reality is these measures do not achieve any of those goals — they merely double down on Maryland’s green energy obsession that got us here in the first place.

The Next Generation Energy Act (H.B. 1035) declares the state’s support for nuclear energy while offering no incentives for nuclear investment and discouraging new nuclear projects with expensive labor construction requirements and unnecessary DEI policies that do nothing to reduce energy costs. It also includes provisions for natural gas plants, but only those with a long-term plan to convert to hydrogen or biofuel, making the projects less feasible and more costly.

These policies won’t provide immediate or long-term relief to ratepayers.

Another of the Democratic leadership’s bills, the Renewable Energy Certainty Act (H.B. 1036), furthers the push for more solar farms but restricts local governments’ ability to manage them. It also makes rooftop solar systems more expensive by adding regulatory burdens on both systems and installers, ultimately doing nothing to help ratepayers reduce their energy bills.

The Energy Resource Adequacy and Planning Act (H.B. 1037) expands state government to create the Integrated Resource Planning Office within the Public Service Commission (PSC) tasked with developing a 25-year comprehensive energy forecast. The bill also requires the PSC to adopt regulations requiring power companies to develop an integrated resource plan. While increased planning may be a good idea, the priority of this measure is clean energy, while affordable rates are again an afterthought. This is yet another piece of legislation that places the needs of Maryland’s families and businesses after the needs of Maryland’s Democratic leaders to please the ever-present green movement in Annapolis.

Over the last six years, Maryland has lost 6,000 megawatts of energy generation through the closure of fossil fuel power plants, not including the pending closures of Brandon Shores and H.A.

Wagner power plants. Over that time Maryland has only gained 1,600 megawatts of new energy generation. Maryland imports over 40% of our energy needs from out-of-state locations. This energy deficit has been exacerbated by a demand surge brought on by the electrification policies pushed by the Democratic leadership, who simply ignore the benefit of natural gas and other proven energy sources. Nothing in the leadership’s plan makes any of this better.

The hard reality is that providing immediate rate relief to Marylanders in the short term is a daunting task. This problem was created over many years with the passage of numerous pieces of reckless legislation. Significant damage has been done to our energy market and it will take time and willingness to reverse these policies and even longer to bring new energy generation online.

The best way to end Maryland’s energy crisis is to end our obsession with green energy and its impossible and expensive goals. The members of the House Republican Caucus are offering numerous initiatives to end Maryland’s expensive green energy addiction. This includes legislation exempting public safety buildings from green energy requirements, prohibiting state and local governments from increasing energy costs through frivolous global warming lawsuits, limiting the provisions of the Climate Solutions Now Act to the extent economically practicable, and eliminating costly “green energy” subsidies that show up on your utility bill. We all want clean energy — but people have to be able to afford it. Until that day comes, all options have to be on the table.

House Minority Leader Jason Buckel (jason.buckel@house.state.md.us) represents Allegany County in the Maryland House of Delegates. House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy (jesse.pippy@house.state.md.us) represents Frederick County.