Two bills before the Maryland General Assembly could fast-track nuclear power plant construction to address the state’s energy generation shortfalls caused by accelerated green energy priorities.

State Sen. Benjamin Brooks, Baltimore County Democrat, is the lead sponsor of the bipartisan Decarbonization Infrastructure Act, which aims to revise Maryland’s renewable power generation guidelines. This regulatory-focused act would broaden the state’s green energy standards to encompass nuclear energy as a viable source.

“I love solar. I got solar panels on my house, but if the sun is not shining, you’re not generating electrons,” Brooks said. “You have renewable energy, and then you have clean energy. Nuclear is clean energy.”

During an interview in Annapolis on Wednesday, Brooks, a member of the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee, said that the state’s rapid retirement of fossil fuel power plants is not sustainable.

“Our demand for energy keeps escalating, but at the same time, we are shutting down generation in the state,” Brooks said. “I know that coal is the dirtiest form that we can use, but if we are going to take 1,300 megawatts offline, then we should be putting 1,300 megawatts online.

“When we look at capacity factor, that’s the percent of the time that a particular source is generating electrons; nuclear energy, on average, is 92% of the time,” Brooks added.

Data from the U.S. Department of Energy shows that nuclear power plants operate nearly three times more consistently and reliably than wind turbine or solar panel systems. Additionally, the reliability of natural gas and coal power generation sites is almost half that of nuclear facilities.

Jorge Aguilar, a regional director at Food and Water Watch, told Spotlight on Maryland on Saturday that he is alarmed by the rapid actions that Maryland lawmakers and Gov. Wes Moore are taking to adopt nuclear energy.

“Many of the fears about nuclear energy stem from the reactive material and the hazardous material that must be disposed of,” Aguilar said. “I think many people still remember the accident at Three Mile Island and Fukushima.”

Brooks counters that fears over nuclear energy are misplaced.

“[T]hese are not our parents’ nuclear reactors. What we are talking about now is Gen4 technologies. Safety is built in,” Brooks said. “They will shut down before they melt down.”

The World Nuclear Association’s website says the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan was damaged in March 2011 when a tsunami triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck the facility. Power loss to the reactor’s cooling system led to a complete meltdown, releasing high levels of radioactive material into the environment.

The United Nations Scientific Committee reported years later that no one directly died from radiation resulting from the Fukushima meltdown. However, the committee noted that there were more than 2,000 premature deaths related to the disaster, primarily due to strained regional medical care and trauma associated with precautionary evacuations around the plant.

No injuries or adverse health effects resulted from a 1979 accidental release of radioactive gas caused by a cooling failure that led to the meltdown of one of the Three Mile Island reactors, according to the World Nuclear Association. The Three Mile Island nuclear plant, located near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is set to reopen with Microsoft’s assistance by 2028.

Last week, Moore’s administration introduced a bill related to nuclear energy that resembles Brooks’s initiative. The Empowering New Energy Resources and Green Initiatives Towards Zero-Emissions, or ENERGIZE Maryland Act, replaces “renewable energy” language in state law with “clean energy.”

The governor’s bill also would establish a regulatory process for the Maryland Public Service Commission to follow when approving nuclear power plant applications. A Spotlight on Maryland review of the bill revealed that the year 2035 is not mentioned anywhere in the legislation.

Moore, a Democrat, wrote on X shortly after the 2024 presidential elections that he would adhere to his accelerated green energy goals, which focus on achieving the state’s net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.

Aguilar said he feels the governor is abandoning his priorities.

“[Moore] pledged as a candidate, and in the last two years, that he would move Maryland towards 100% clean energy by 2035,” Aguilar said. “We never believed that he meant, 100% clean energy meant, building out new nuclear facilities all over Maryland.”

Spotlight on Maryland sent several questions to Moore’s office on Saturday, including:

Is the governor planning to adapt his green energy priorities given the higher prices such goals are costing Marylanders?

Why does the governor believe Maryland should be the home to data center expansion projects?

In the short term, does the governor believe natural gas could offset the state’s energy imbalance?

The governor’s office did not immediately acknowledge or respond to comment requests.

Meanwhile, Brooks said he is focused on bringing down residential energy costs.

“Nuclear is clean. You’re not going to get baseload out of the other two yet, wind and solar, because we just don’t have the infrastructure for that,” Brooks said. “Until we can, nuclear is going to be our best option.”

Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by FOX45 News and The Baltimore Sun. Follow Gary Collins with Spotlight on Maryland on X. Send news tips to gmcollins@sbgtv.com.