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Maryland committee hears wide-ranging testimony on bill to remove trash incinerators from renewable energy standard
Summary
Supporters told the Senate Education, Energy and Environment Committee that ratepayers have subsidized waste‑to‑energy incinerators for years; opponents warned of lost jobs, higher disposal costs and local nonprofit funding losses. No vote was recorded.
The Maryland Senate Education, Energy and Environment Committee heard several hours of testimony on Senate Bill 10, the Reclaim Renewable Energy Act, which would remove waste‑to‑energy (trash incineration) from the state’s Tier 1 Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS).
Backers said the change would stop rates and subsidies from flowing to facilities they described as high‑polluting and not truly renewable. Emily Ransom of Clean Water Action and Kim Kobal of Maryland League of Conservation Voters joined elected officials and residents in urging the committee to approve the bill, citing millions in ratepayer subsidies that have flowed to incinerators in recent years and public health harms in neighborhoods near facilities.
Proponents highlighted figures from testimony and written materials: the hearing record included claims that Maryland ratepayers paid about $11.5 million to incinerators in 2020 and $24.3 million in 2023, and that over approximately four years $75 million in RPS subsidies went to municipal solid‑waste facilities. Supporters said the money should instead support wind, solar and other clean sources or be directed to Maryland’s Strategic Energy Investment Fund.
Opponents — including union representatives, facility operators and local nonprofit leaders — warned that excluding incinerators from the RPS could cause plant shutdowns, cost union members their jobs and force higher solid‑waste disposal costs such as longer trucking distances and landfill use. United Steelworkers Local 12517 told the committee the bill could imperil roughly 40 union jobs at a Curtis Bay facility and cited previous job losses elsewhere when similar credits were removed. Representatives of Wind Waste (the local waste‑to‑energy operator) said the firm has invested in emissions controls and local philanthropy and warned losses would reduce community funding and plant investments.
Several witnesses framed the issue as both a climate and an environmental‑justice matter. Senator Karen Lewis Young and community residents said incinerators are disproportionately sited in low‑income communities of color and that particulate and toxic emissions pose health risks. Public health legal advocates and a clinic attorney cited elevated asthma and emergency‑room rates in Baltimore and urged the Senate to remove incineration from Maryland’s Tier 1 RPS.
The committee took testimony from a mix of municipal officials, labor, environmental groups and residents. No formal vote was recorded during the hearing; sponsors and witnesses said they hoped for a committee report after consideration of the day’s testimony.
