Senate Bill 1: They Make More. We Pay More. By Len Foxwell

Who is ready for more sticker shock at the grocery store? Well…get ready. It’s going to happen right here in Maryland. 

On March 1, the Senate Committee on Education, Energy and the Environment voted favorably on Senate Bill 1, which means it will now go to the Senate for likely approval. If passed, it will end retail energy competition and choice in Maryland, and take us back to the days when everyone was forced to shop with the government-backed utilities. 

It’s arguably the most anti-business and anti-consumer bill I’ve ever seen brought before the General Assembly. And if possible, the bill has gotten even worse.

Amendments have been added to the bill that will prohibit a green energy producer from marketing “green energy” unless it has been approved as such by the Public Service Commission. Which must, according to the bill language, consider THE STATE WHERE THE RENEWABLE ENERGY WAS PRODUCED.

Here’s what this means:

There will be even more pressure to chew up Maryland farmland for the installation of solar panels. 

As a result, there will be fewer family farms producing less food for local consumption, and prices at the grocery store will go up even more than they already have.

That’s basic economics.

To summarize, we will be paying even more for our electricity because that’s what always happens in a monopoly.

And now we will pay more for our milk, bread, eggs and vegetables. 

This is a windfall for the big utilities and it is a land grab for big energy corporations. It is a punch in the gut for consumers who don’t need and cannot afford to deal with higher costs at the grocery store.

Senate Bill 1 is anti-business. It is anti-consumer. And it is anti-green energy. Please contact your senator and delegates today and ask them to tap the brakes and think this through before voting for a bad bill.

Len N. Foxwell is the principal of Tred Avon Strategies and the former chief of staff to Comptroller Peter V. R. Franchot