By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Political Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
As weather patterns drastically shift and rising sea levels threaten whole communities and cities, climate change policies are becoming more crucial throughout America.
Maryland legislators and leaders are increasingly giving focus to the impacts of climate change, pushing for a better tomorrow through legislation.
“We are only on pace to reach about 7 percent solar energy by 2030, when we were supposed to meet 14-½ percent. We’re only on pace to maybe meet half of what our goal was,” said state Sen. Sarah Elfreth (D-Dist. 30) during a hearing on her solar energy bill during the 2024 Maryland General Assembly session, emphasizing the importance of acting now.
Elfreth’s bill creates a Small Solar Energy Generating System Incentive Program, establishes the Customer-Sited Solar Program in the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), makes changes to solar property tax incentives and more.
“It extends a sunset for tax incentives for certain projects, serving low- and moderate-income communities in Maryland,” said Elfreth. “It makes sure we can meet our goals without leaving anyone behind–particularly when it comes to our friends in organized labor–by taking the federal standards for prevailing wage and layering them onto every large-scale solar project here in Maryland, so that we can pay family-sustaining wages to the folks who work on these projects.”
The legislation largely took effect on June 1, but provisions for the Customer-Sited Solar Program took effect July 1 and will terminate on June 30, 2027. Also, net metering provisions will take effect on Jan. 1, 2025. Property tax measures within the bill will apply to taxable years starting after June 30, 2024.
Maryland, like much of the U.S., has experienced heat wave after heat wave this summer, causing it to feel like it’s anywhere from 100 to 110 degrees most days.
In its 2021 annual report, the Maryland Commission on Climate Change (MCCC) reported that heat will be one of the first ways Maryland will be impacted by climate change. They said heat waves will be longer, more frequent and hotter. The commission also highlighted that disadvantaged communities, the elderly, and people with more than one medical condition will be impacted the most by this shift.
According to previous AFRO reporting, Gov. Wes Moore (D) announced and signed a slew of climate change policies in June that would support Maryland’s climate goals and efforts to move away from fossil fuels.
“It is bold and we will get it done,” said Moore to a crowd of Henderson-Hopkins School students, educators and state legislators in East Baltimore on June 4. “Today’s order ensures that the state of Maryland focuses on environmental justice and economic justice in all of our climate work. Climate justice is economic justice if you’re doing it right. We are going to craft policies that reflect that mindset.”
The “Implementing Maryland’s Climate Pollution Reduction Plan” executive order directed the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) to create new policies to decrease building emissions, direct the Maryland Energy Administration to develop a framework to reach 100 percent clean energy by 2035 and enact new policies that include reducing energy use by imposing zero-emission heating standards.
In Baltimore in February, Moore announced a Zero-Emission Bus Pilot Program through the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA).
The initiative was a part of the Administration’s plan to convert its buses to zero-emission vehicles. It added seven zero-emissions buses to the MTA’s local bus fleet, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality in the city.
To fund climate change initiatives, an in-depth report by the MDE last year said the state would need to come up with $1 billion annually.
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