No New Gas Plants

Lawmakers in Annapolis are considering legislation that could build new gas plants in Maryland. Please contact your representatives at the state level and urge them to reject any policy that could lead to new gas generation in Maryland.

Tell your MD lawmakers to reject legislation for new gas plants in Maryland!

This email will be sent to all of your Maryland state legislators. Please personalize!

Dear {contact_data~title} {contact_data~lastName},

As your constituent I urge you to reject any legislation that could build new fossil fuel power plants in Maryland. Some members of the General Assembly are preparing legislation that could potentially build new gas plants in Maryland. We do need new energy sources to meet growing demand, but new gas plants are more expensive, worse for the planet, and will take longer to build than the clean energy alternatives.

Thankfully, Delegate Lorig Charkoudian (D-Mont. Co.) and Senator Ben Brooks (D-Balt. Co.) are sponsoring the Abundant, Affordable Clean Energy Act which would meet our energy needs faster and more affordably than gas plants. Google recently commissioned a study from the respected independent research firm Brattle Group. The Brattle study found that building utility scale batteries or a virtual power plant are cheaper ways to meet new energy demand than building a new gas plant. (See here: https://www.brattle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Real-Reliability-The-Value-of-Virtual-Power_5.3.2023.pdf) Clean energy is less expensive than fossil fuel energy. That’s why 96% of the electricity added to the grid last year was carbon free. Gas plants are an outdated technology that we should not be investing in.

Gas plants also take far too long to build. In 2023 Dominion Energy in Virginia announced it was building a new gas plant and said it would be operational in 2026. Today, the estimated operating date for that power plant is 2030. A new gas plant simply cannot meet our growing energy demand today or anytime in the 2020s. Batteries on the other hand can be constructed in a matter of months, not years.

No publicly available analysis says we need new gas power to meet our energy needs. Legislation introduced this year by Senator Katie Fry Hester (D-Howard Co. and Mont. Co.) would create an integrated resource plan for the state, which would identify whether there is any need for a new gas plant, but spending state dollars on an expensive new gas plant without knowing whether it is necessary would be a huge financial mistake.

The costs of climate change keep rising and building new gas would only make the problem worse. Maryland is legally required to reduce our emissions, and investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure in 2025 moves us in the opposite direction.

I ask that you ask leadership not to move any bills that build new gas plants in Maryland. Please let me know if you are able to make that request of them.

Sincerely,

{user_data~First name} {user_data~Last name},
{user_data~Address line 1}
{user_data~City}

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