As high-profile energy and immigration bills await Gov. Wes Moore’s signature, the question remains: Will he sign them, allow them to go into effect without his signature or issue more vetoes?

His office provided few details to The Baltimore Sun in recent days.

“As Governor Moore reviews the hundreds of bills put forward this session, he will continue to work with the State Legislature, local leaders, and all partners involved to ensure that we are signing legislation that will make Maryland safer, more affordable, more competitive, and the state that serves,” Moore spokesman Carter Elliott IV said in a statement Friday before his office issued an list of vetoed bills.

Moore, a Democrat, is holding his fifth bill signing ceremony of 2025 at noon Tuesday.

Bills become law once the governor signs them, but they can also go into effect without the governor’s signature if 30 days have passed since the legislation was presented to him. That day, known as “presentment,” will fall on May 27 this year.

Tension has recently arisen between the governor’s office and the legislature after Moore issued vetoes, which the General Assembly’s Democratic supermajority can override.

Friday evening, Moore’s office released a rare early list of 23 bills he vetoed following the 2025 legislative session, including a bill to establish the Maryland Reparations Commission, which was intended to research and recommend benefits to Marylanders whose ancestors were enslaved or inequitably impacted by policies from the post-Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras.

“…(W)hile I appreciate the work that went into this legislation, I strongly believe now is not the time for another study,” Moore wrote in his veto letter. “Now is the time for continued action that delivers results for the people we serve.”

The bill was a priority of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus, which released a statement expressing “deep disappointment” in Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor, for choosing not to enact the legislation.

“At a time when the White House and Congress are actively targeting Black communities, dismantling diversity initiatives, and using harmful coded language, Governor Moore had a chance to show the country and the world that here in Maryland we boldly and courageously recognize our painful history and the urgent need to address it,” the caucus said Friday.

The Reparations Commission bill passed both chambers with a veto-proof majority. In Maryland, the General Assembly has the opportunity to override the governor’s veto on any bill presented to him after the annual session has concluded, as long as they vote to do it in the early days of the next session, or during a special session.

Legislative leadership has floated the potential for a special session later in 2025, dependent upon the impact President Donald Trump’s administration and the Republican-controlled Congress have on Maryland’s already unstable fiscal situation.

Moore vetoed only four bills in 2024, and just three the year before. Both lists of vetoed bills came out after he held all of his signing ceremonies. He has until May 27 to issue more vetoes, if he so chooses.

However, as the state faces a tough economic climate and election season looms, the fate of several bills is unclear.

Referring The Sun to a statement issued Friday, David Schuhlein, a spokesman for Senate President Bill Ferguson, said that the Senate will “evaluate” each vetoed bill and “have more details on possible action in the near future.” House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones’ office declined to comment.

Here is a look at what Moore is still considering.

Energy independence

Maryland House and Senate leadership sponsored a package of energy bills intending to lower ratepayers’ skyrocketing utility bills and make the state more energy independent.

Jones, a Democrat, and Ferguson introduced the Next Generation Energy Act, which, if enacted, requires the Maryland Public Service Commission (MPSC) to request proposals for new energy generation sources fulfilling energy needs for peak summer hours.

This would allow the state to phase out coal and oil while maintaining enough power generation for when those plants close. The legislation does not mandate the closure of existing oil or coal plants.

The Next Generation Energy Act would also provide utility bill rebate payments based on usage by residential electrical customers during peak months.

The other viable bill from the leadership energy package would set statewide standards for solar energy and battery storage projects. Moore vetoed the package’s third bill Friday, which would have establish an independent office within the MPSC to end the state’s reliance on PJM for energy load forecasting.

Republicans railed against the energy package during the legislative session, saying they don’t believe that it will provide “real relief” to Marylanders’ pocketbooks.

Eliminating 287(g)

The governor also hasn’t signed legislation that would create a statewide standard for law enforcement participation in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.

The Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, sponsored by Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair Will Smith, a Montgomery County Democrat, seeks to limit the ability of ICE agents to enter public schools and libraries, mental and physical health care facilities, and courthouses. It also would eliminate current and existing partnerships between local law enforcement and ICE through the federal 287(g) program.

Carroll, Cecil, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, St. Mary’s and Washington counties are currently engaged in 287(g) partnerships with ICE.

If enacted, the statewide standard would require local jails to hold people who have been convicted of crimes of violence, any offense that requires them to appear on the sex offender registry, driving under the influence, or engaging in gang activity for 48 hours only to facilitate ICE detainers. If ICE does not retrieve them within that time, the individual would be released.

At the end of the session, Smith said that his preference would be to end the state’s 287(g) partnerships wholesale, but he had concerns about financial retaliation from President Donald Trump.

Republicans decried the policy as a method of protecting people who commit violent crimes.

Discussions of the bill were often intense as members of the minority party — and members of law enforcement — often evoked the names of people allegedly killed by people who entered the country illegally, including Rachel Morin.

Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, a Salvadoran national who entered the U.S. illegally in 2023, was convicted of murdering Moran a week after the legislature adjourned for the year.

The bill was ultimately sent to Moore’s desk moments before midnight on the session’s last day. House Majority Leader David Moon, a Montgomery County Democrat, said that he believes a balance was struck on the bill and that the General Assembly needed to act in the face of Trump administration policies that have had financial repercussions in Maryland.

“It was time for us to seize the issue and try and strike a compromise … that we feel balances public safety concerns,” Moon said.

Have a news tip? Contact Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com.