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Tell your legislators to stop "renewable energy" subsidies propping up polluters in our communities.
Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) was created in 2004 to ramp up renewable energy production feeding Maryland’s grid. It requires utilities to purchase a certain amount of Renewable Energy Credits [RECs] from producers of renewable energy - by 2030, equivalent to 50% of the energy they use. The cost of purchasing these RECs is then passed on to ratepayers.
The RPS also defines what energy sources count as “renewable.” Currently, Maryland’s RPS allows many energy sources that create local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions to qualify as "renewable energy:" trash incinerators, woody biomass incinerators, and facilities that manufacture or capture methane. These facilities are overwhelmingly located in already overburdened, disproportionately Black, brown, and/or low-income communities.
When facilities that emit pollution are included in our RPS, they displace the emissions-free technologies that we truly need to face the climate crisis: wind, solar, water, and geothermal. When we reach the current RPS goal of 50% renewable energy by 2030, that accomplishment will be a lie if it includes polluting energy. Maryland ratepayers should not be forced to spend their hard-earned dollars to pay for RECs from energy facilities that are poisoning their communities.
Sign the petition below to urge your legislators to remove all greenhouse-gas–emitting technologies from our renewable energy program!
Maryland Legislators:
We believe that Maryland’s renewable energy program should help to promote truly clean, renewable energy sources that do not emit greenhouse gasses or generate pollution that harms communities. We want Maryland to stop subsidizing trash incineration, methane made from factory farm waste, and all other forms of dirty energy, so that our renewable energy dollars go to truly clean sources like solar, wind, water, and geothermal.
Signed,