Maryland Energy Efficiency Advocates Advance Energy Efficiency with Climate Commission
A Maryland workgroup took an important step forward this Fall toward achieving energy equity for all Marylanders through stronger energy efficiency policies. The Buildings Subgroup released a report to the Mitigation Work Group of the Maryland Commission on Climate Change (MCCC) offering recommendations for how Maryland can decarbonize its buildings sector. Members of the Maryland Energy Efficiency Advocates (MEEA) participated in a series of meetings hosted by the Buildings Subgroup and offered insights on how energy efficiency can cut energy waste and lower the energy burden on disadvantaged communities across Maryland. As a result of advocacy and insights from MEEA members, the Building Subgroup included the following four strong recommendations in its report.
Recommendation 1: Enable Fuel-Switching to let Marylanders Choose Lowest Cost and Lowest Carbon Energy Systems. Currently, EmPOWER Maryland incentives for installing electric heat pumps are only available to ratepayers who replace existing electric heating systems, consistent with EmPOWER’s original mandate to reduce electricity use. Ratepayers with fossil fuel heating systems cannot access incentives to replace their systems with electric heat pumps that could lower their energy costs and reduce emissions.
Recommendation 2: Let EmPOWER Facilitate Beneficial Electrification and Greater Energy Efficiency. Although EmPOWER’s original focus on reducing electricity consumption and peak demand made sense when enacted and served the State well for more than a decade, it is time to adapt EmPOWER to align with the State’s many energy related goals, including its GGRA emissions reduction goals. Electrifying fossil fuel end-uses in buildings is necessary for achieving Maryland’s long-term emissions reduction targets, electrified systems can offer the most cost effective solutions for space heating and water heating, and several other states found that electrification-focused scenarios are the lowest cost options for achieving those states’ emissions reduction targets.
Recommendation 7: Prioritize an Equitable Level of Benefits for all Marylanders. Limited income households, communities of color, and other disadvantaged communities stand to benefit the most from energy efficiency through energy usage reduction, energy bill reduction, and improved public health, but often have the least access to energy efficiency resources and services.
Recommendation 8: Improve Interagency Coordination for Wholistic Building Retrofits. Maryland has some of the oldest building stock in the country. Old, deteriorated, and substandard buildings often prevent the maximization of energy efficiency impacts and benefits. Therefore, in order to decarbonize the buildings sector, we must improve Maryland’s building stock. One way to do this is by coordinating the state’s home upgrade and energy efficiency retrofit programs.
MEEA members commend the Building Subgroup for their diligent efforts and are confident these recommendations will promote energy equity across Maryland, particularly for low-income Marylanders and communities of color. For Black and Latinx households, 42 percent and 68 percent of their excess energy burden, respectively, would be eliminated just by making their homes as efficient as the average home. The Building Subgroups recommendations are an important step in this direction.
The Maryland Commission on Climate Change (MCCC) was created in 2008 with the goal of developing recommendations to help Maryland achieve the greenhouse gas emissions. MCCC is now tasked with helping Maryland achieve the goals laid out in the reauthorization of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions Act (GGRA) in 2015 (originally passed in 2009) to achieve a 40% reduction of emissions by 2030. Here is a fact sheet that explains GGRA. MDE put out a draft plan and now the MCCC is considering specific ways to address the draft plan.