Maryland lawmakers are preoccupied with energy policy.

This session, even as it struggles to close a $3 billion deficit in the state budget, the Maryland legislature is debating dozens of energy policy proposals from state delegates and senators in both parties. The bills respond to concerns about the reliability of the state’s energy grid after recent mass outages in Texas and close-calls in California, along with growing demands for electricity and the rising cost of utility bills for state ratepayers. Utility bills grew faster than inflation around the country over the past few years, but they’ve spiked this winter in Maryland. In a recent hearing in the state legislature, utility leaders said the cost increases were attributable mostly to the unusually cold season, and the fact that people were using more fuel to heat their homes.

Lawmakers are looking for ways to lower costs for ratepayers and generate more power in-state, even if it means burning more fossil fuels in the short term. It’s a stark shift in priorities from just a few years ago, when Maryland passed one of the most ambitious climate laws in the country. And it signals new anxieties around the country about power grid reliability amid growing demand from data centers and efforts to transition away from fossil fuels.

Maryland’s 2022 law called for a 60 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2031 and emphasized a transition to renewable energy. Now, Democratic leaders in the state House and Senate are backing a set of bills that calls for a new power plant in Maryland, likely to be fueled by natural gas. The leaders’ proposals would “lower consumers’ utility bills, ensure the reliability of our energy grid, and create more predictability in our state’s regulatory environment as we move toward a more sustainable future,” House Speaker Adrienne Jones said at a press conference last month.

Maryland generates 40 percent of the electricity it uses in-state. That’s a smaller portion than other states that are part of the same regional transmission organization, a multistate grid coordinator called PJM. That makes some lawmakers anxious that Maryland could be first to go dark in the event of a disaster that puts too much strain on the grid. Other factors are contributing to Maryland’s rising utility costs. Gas and electric distribution costs have risen significantly in the last decade. Other costs result from a 2013 law called the STRIDE Act that was meant to urge utilities to repair aging gas infrastructure to prevent leaks and explosions. Many have opted instead to replace aging pipes altogether — spending billions of dollars that they are able to recoup from ratepayers. Some conservative lawmakers have blamed past Democratic climate policies for rising costs, citing rules that require utilities to invest in energy-efficiency upgrades and to buy energy from renewable sources as drivers of cost increases.

The proposed bills related to energy are all over the map. Gov. Wes Moore has sponsored a bill to promote new nuclear energy in the state. Anotherbillwould create an office to perform comprehensive energy forecasting and planning. Another wouldreform the STRIDE Actin an effort to reduce ratepayer costs. Another isintendedto streamline permitting of renewable energy facilities. Another bill, the Abundant, Affordable Clean Energy Act (AACE), would promote renewable sources andbattery storage.

“There’s a lot of competing arguments about what is the path forward,” says state Del. Lorig Charkoudian, a Democrat who sponsored the AACE Act.

Two other bills sponsored by Charkoudian, related to utility transparency and energy transmission, were recently approved by the House. House and Senate Democratic leaders are working to package a variety of energy-related proposals into a single bill that would go to a vote before both chambers, Charkoudian says.

Republicans, who make up less than a third of the membership in both chambers, are promoting some policies of their own. Chris West, a Republican state senator, says he got a wake-up call last summer when controversy erupted over a proposed 70-mile transmission line that PJM proposed building through his district.

“There was no warning that this was about to happen. We were all taken aback by this news,” West says. “That got my attention pretty quick.”

As he started to research the issue, West says he concluded that the transmission problem is “a subset of a larger problem, which is that the state of Maryland is in perilous danger of going dark within the very near future.” West sponsored half-a-dozen bills related to energy this session, some of which are meant to allow conversion of coal and oil plants to natural gas and to allow colocation of power generation facilities and data centers — a growing strain on energy supply around the country. Another of West’s proposals would establish a task force with energy industry representatives and researchers to make recommendations for the state’s long-term energy reliability.

As a member of the minority party, West says he’s not privy to internal negotiations about what policies will end up in the final package. But he’s hoping that if nothing else, the legislature will convene experts to inform long-term policy changes.

“I freely acknowledge that I am a Johnny-come-lately to this field and I do not have all the answers,” West says. “No one wants to get fingered for the blame if Maryland goes dark, so it’s in everyone’s interest to solve this.”