With the legislative session underway, Governor Wes Moore is once again making his climate goals clear.

In a recent post to social media, Moore said, “Maryland’s clean energy transition is an economic driver & I remain committed to our bold climate & clean energy goals. With the General Assembly, we will reach 100% clean energy by 2035 by accelerating our clean energy development, lowering energy costs, & growing our economy.”

Moore is reiterating a goal previously outlined in Maryland’s Climate Pollution Reduction Plan.

According to a report released last month from the Governor’s Subcabinet on Climate, the Clean Power Standard requires “100% of the electricity consumed in Maryland to be generated by clean and renewable sources of energy by 2035.”

The report said the Maryland Energy Administration, has “identified issues and potential reform efforts for the State to make further progress on its clean energy goals” and “plans to propose a policy solution by the end of 2025.”

However, with Maryland’s current energy crisis, reaching that goal may be challenging.

“We believe that is the second most important item we face in this legislative session, a crisis that has been put before us because of a failure to address energy generation solutions,” said Sen. Stephen Hershey, who represents Caroline, Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne’s Counties.

The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project, a proposed 70-mile transmission line, has highlighted Maryland’s growing energy needs over the last few months. Officials behind the project have argued it is needed due to more energy demands from data centers, electrification and power plants retiring.

Officials have said without the proposed transmission line, there will be major reliability issues with the grid. However, those opposed to the project have questioned its needs, and criticized the state’s energy policies

“We have power plants that are closing, without a backup, with no plan in place to create the commensurate amount of energy for our citizens,” said Del. Jesse Pippy, who represents Frederick County. “We have transmission lines crisscrossing counties causing significant problems for tens of thousands of people.”

Currently, Maryland does not generate enough energy in-state and imports a significant amount of energy from other states, some of which includes fossil fuels. Of the energy produced in state, only about half of it comes from carbon-free sources.

While the 2024 data is not yet available, according to PJM, the regional transmission organization, about 7.8% of energy generated in the state came from wind, solar and water sources, and 42.9% was from nuclear sources.

When it comes to developing additional in state generation, according to a PJM spokesperson, there are 65 projects queued under study, while 30 projects are available for construction.

However, they said “this amount of generation is not sufficient to replace retiring generation.”

They said that renewable sources do not contribute the same amount as thermal generators, in part, because they are not always available. For instance, they said most of the projects in the queue are solar, and for those types of projects they can only depend on a portion of that energy being generated because the sun is not shining at all times.

To address the challenges ahead, numerous lawmakers have said they plan to propose legislation related to energy generation, transmission lines and data centers, among others.

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