House and Senate environmental leaders have proposed several bills to tackle major environmental concerns and require the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, avoid using fossil fuels, and swap vehicles with electric models. The House has proposed a package of four bills, whereas the Senate proposed one all-encompassing bill. Here is a breakdown of the major climate change bills being considered this legislative session:
This bill requires “the State to ensure that a certain minimum percentage of passenger cars and other light-duty vehicles purchased for the State vehicle fleet in certain fiscal years are zero-emission vehicles, subject to the availability of funding.” If passed, 100% of the passenger cars in the state fleet would have to be electric by 2031.
According to the Baltimore Sun, this bill would not require all school buses purchased by local school districts to be electric, but Delegate “Fraser-Hidalgo has proposed a pilot program that would help school districts lease electric school buses. The pilot program also would allow private companies to access stored electricity on the buses’ batteries when school systems determine that they won’t be in use, such as during the summer.”
HB 94 passed through Second Reading on February 15th, with an Amendment that adds several co-sponsors to the bill. Track bill status here.
HB 708 – Comprehensive Climate Solutions
This bill requires “the State to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions through the use of various measures, including the alteration of statewide greenhouse gas emissions goals, the establishment of a net-zero statewide greenhouse gas emissions goal, requiring gas companies and electric companies to provide certain programs and services, and requiring electric companies to increase their annual incremental gross energy savings through certain programs and services.”
Under this bill, the state would need to achieve net-zero statewide greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 and a “60% reduction in emissions — based on 2006 levels —” by 2032, as reported by the Baltimore Sun. The state laws currently in place call for a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030.
HB 708 has a hearing in the Economic Matters Committee on March 4th at 1:00 p.m. Track bill status here.
This bill alters “the definition of “high performance building” to include certain schools and public safety buildings and require[s] that the building meet certain building standards, [requires] the Department of General Services to establish a maximum acceptable global warming potential for certain categories of eligible materials used in certain eligible projects, [and requires] a unit of State government to specify the eligible materials that will be used in an eligible project in the solicitation for an eligible project.”
HB 806 has a hearing in the Appropriations Committee on March 1st at 1:00 p.m. Track bill status here.
HB 831 – Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Commercial and Residential Buildings
This bill requires “the Department of the Environment to establish building emissions standards for certain commercial and residential buildings, [establishes] the Building Energy Transition Implementation Task Force to study certain matters and develop a plan for funding the retrofit of certain buildings, and [requires] the Maryland Department of Labor to update the Maryland Building Performance Standards.”
According to the Baltimore Sun:
Both of this year’s House and Senate packages call for commercial and residential buildings over 25,000 square feet to reduce their direct emissions incrementally before reaching net-zero emissions by 2040. State-owned buildings have an accelerated timeline.
That would require building owners to take actions such as switching from natural gas, heating oil and propane to efficient electric heat pumps.
The legislation requires Maryland to adopt a new building code by the start of 2023 that would require newly constructed buildings to meet all of their water and space heating needs without the use of fossil fuels.
HB 831 has a hearing in the Environment and Transportation Committee on February 25th at 11:00 a.m. Track bill status here.
SB 528 – Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022
This all-encompassing bill requires “the State to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions through the use of various measures, including the alteration of statewide greenhouse gas emissions goals, the establishment of a net-zero statewide greenhouse gas emissions goal, the development of certain energy efficiency and electrification requirements for certain buildings, and requiring electric companies to increase their annual incremental gross energy savings through certain programs and services.”
This bill is similar to last year’s bill that failed to pass on Sine Die due to irreconcilable differences in the House and Senate versions of the bill. Last year’s bill “required school districts that were building new schools to make at least one of them a net-zero building by 2030,” reported the Baltimore Sun. “This year’s Senate bill has a similar measure, though school systems will be able to obtain a waiver if the bill’s requirements raise construction costs too dramatically.”
Senator Paul Pinsky is reported by the Baltimore Sun as saying:
“I want to go out of my way [to] not put unnecessary burden on schools,” the Prince George’s County Democrat said. “So, we’re going to be proposing a fund that school systems can tap into to pick up the marginal cost. And if there’s no money in the fund, or the marginal cost gets too big, they get a waiver. So we’re going to make it close to revenue neutral.”
Similar to HB 708, this bill would require the state to achieve net-zero statewide greenhouse gas emissions by 2045, but calls for a 60% reduction in emissions by 2030, two years sooner than what is proposed in the House Bill. This bill also has requirements for electric fleet vehicles:
It calls for 100% of the passenger cars purchased to be electric by fiscal year 2027, and all passenger cars in the fleet to be electric by 2030.
The Senate bill would require all school buses purchased by local school districts be electric by 2024, but not if they cannot obtain the funds to offset any difference in cost.
SS 528 has a hearing in the Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee on February 15th at 1:00 p.m. Track bill status here.
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