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REAL Press Release: Legislation To Block Energy Choice Elicits Public Outcry From Maryland Customers, Companies And Organizations
Excerpts from REAL press release:
SB 1 cuts clean energy and EV charging products, blocks companies from competing with the utility and backtracks Maryland’s decarbonization progress.
Maryland customers, companies and organizations have mobilized in opposition to Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Senator Malcolm Augustine, which would block retail energy suppliers from offering innovative energy products that compete with the utility basic service offering.
The passage of this bill bans long-term fixed contracts that shield customers from frequent utility rate hikes. The legislation also bans all products priced higher than the utility rate, even if there are additional value-added benefits, such as 100% renewable energy plans (the utility supply is only 37% renewable energy), free EV charging equipment and free nights and weekend charging and innovative time-of-use programs that incentivize customers to reduce usage during peak demand by offering free electric vehicle charging or special rates.
As suppliers are being banned from offering these products, electric utilities have received approval to fund these types of programs through customer rates, including the cost of research and development, advertising and deployment of these types of programs, even if the customer isn’t participating in the program.
“This legislation was developed in a vacuum with no input from market subject matter experts. As a result, the legislation does not accomplish the goal of improving consumer protections, but it does have the unintended impact of blocking a range of value-added products that customers have chosen, which play a crucial role in meeting state decarbonization goals,” said Christopher Ercoli, CEO of the Retail Energy Advancement League (‘REAL’). “This legislation will restrict retail suppliers to offering only basic supply like the utility. It is a market killer.”
In the last two weeks, more than 1,200 Maryland customers have contacted their legislator asking them to oppose the legislation.
