January 28, 2025
BGE Update & District Night Invite
I’m writing for two reasons – first I want to share information on the BGE Rate increases that have occurred and provide some details about what’s happening. Secondly, I wanted to be sure you got the invitation to our District 5 & Carroll County Constituent Night in Annapolis on February 17th. Details are below:
Addressing BGE Rate Increases:
BGE has sent out the document pasted below about the number of increases customers are seeing and will see on their BGE bill. It’s important to note that, according to BGE (but I’ve confirmed this independently) 64% of the coming increases are not paid to BGE. The distribution rates and MYP (Multi-Year Plan) reconciliation charges, as shown in the chart below, support ongoing investments in infrastructure to improve the safety, reliability, and resilience of energy delivery for customers. Many of these investments are long-time requirements by the Public Service Commission and/or the state.
There’s also fees and costs that the Maryland General Assembly has added to your bill through past actions, including the so called “EmPOWER Maryland” fee which essentially taxes you monthly to allegedly invest in creating more renewable energy in the state but generally just gets spent on buying out of state “green” energy. I opposed this when it passed back in 2017. However, the fact is – the lack of in-state energy production adds to the cost of acquiring electricity for Maryland customers.
Click the pictures below to get a better view
What these and potential future rate hike show clearly, is that Maryland must get serious about fixing our short-sighted, failing energy policy. Even before Governor Moore was in office talking about 100% “net zero” energy by 2035, the General Assembly Democrat supermajority was ramming through policies like EmPOWER Maryland, the Climate Solutions Now Act and more that put all our energy-production eggs in the solar/wind basket, instead of supporting and growing natural gas plant production or investing in new nuclear. Now, some Democrats, including even Senate President Ferguson and other “green” legislators, are acknowledging that they should’ve done more on nuclear and not de-emphasized natural gas.
So, what can I and other state legislators do about this? Well, if we want to avoid more rate hikes beyond this one, we must increase energy production right away and get started on long term solutions as well.
To that end, I and several other Republican Senators are working across party lines with several of our Democratic colleagues on bipartisan effort to get more natural gas and other reliable sources of energy moving in the pipeline quickly. We also need PJM, the regional grid operator, to finally take action on long-waiting energy generation projects in the 13 states in the grid. Apparently, the Trump administration is moving project review red tape out of the way to get things going -that’s part of the reason these projects were stalled.
Second, I sponsored SB 332, seeking to prevent yet another Maryland coal-fired plant from being shut down (Brandon Shores). Maryland already imports approximately 40% of its energy from out of state. Brandon Shores was scheduled to close in June 2025; however, that has been delayed and it is my hope that this is reconsidered due to our state not having enough “clean energy” to support energy demands at least until more reliable energy plants can be brought online or back online.
Third, I’m co-sponsoring SB 478 to protect local, county control over large-scale solar panel installations. How will this help? We need the state to focus its energy efforts on real, concrete energy production projects – not the false idol of solar farms. You would have to put solar farms on tens of thousands of acres to make up for the energy output of just one natural gas power plant.
Our bills are growing in many ways because of failed, flawed policy choices made in Annapolis that I opposed – and we’ve been trying to reverse them. The only positive here is that now more of my Democratic colleagues are listening and starting to move. I will do my best to keep you updated on future energy policy developments.
District 5 & Carroll County Night in Annapolis:
You are cordially invited to attend “An Evening in Annapolis with the Carroll County Delegation” on February 17th, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. The event will take place in the Miller Senate Office Building, in President’s Conference Center East (11 Bladen Street, Annapolis, Maryland 21401).
All District 5 residents are invited to this event as is anyone else in Carroll County as Senator Chris West & Delegate Josh Stonko who represent the rest of Carroll County in District 42C will be joining us. This is a free event where refreshments will be served.
Following the event, guests are welcome to walk over to the Statehouse and watch either the House or Seante session at 8pm. Please bring a photo ID with you for entry into both the office building and Statehouse. NOTE: Pocketknives are not permitted so leave those behind in your vehicle or at home.
RSVP: Senator Justin Ready at 410-841-3683 or email [email protected].
As always, feel free to reach out to my office anytime with questions or concerns.
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