For years, communities impacted by trash incineration in Maryland have been working to build a Zero Waste future where we reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost our trash instead of incinerating or landfilling it. But Maryland's renewable energy policies have been holding us back, putting the state's thumb on the scale in favor of the worst way of managing our waste: trash incineration.
Trash incineration pollutes more, per amount of energy produced, than any other source of electricity. But because trash incineration is currently considered “renewable” in Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard program, three trash incinerators (in Baltimore, Montgomery County, and Lorton, VA) profited $14.8 million in subsidies in 2021 that come out of our electricity bills - subsidies that are supposed to be supporting renewable energy. When they get wasted on trash incineration instead, we don't make the progress we need to make on climate action, and environmental justice communities face the injustice of having to subsidize the very polluters that are harming their health.
But thanks to years of pressure from frontline communities and allies across the state, the tide is finally turning. Earlier this year, local governments impacted by trash incineration (Baltimore City, Montgomery County, and Frederick County) spoke out in favor of fixing this problem and redirecting these subsidies toward real renewable energy. And in early November, the Maryland Commission on Climate Change voted to recommend that the state stop giving "renewable energy" subsidies to trash incineration. In the face of attempts at greenwashing from the incinerator industry, there can be no doubt: trash incineration is not renewable energy, and redirecting subsidies back toward real renewable energy where they belong is the right move for the climate.
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