EmPOWER Reform

Energy Efficiency for Everyone

Save more, pollute less

The 2024 General Assembly is expected to consider an update to the state’s energy efficiency program, EmPOWER Maryland, which is great news for Maryland energy consumers.

We’re calling on the Maryland General Assembly to support the EmPOWER Maryland Energy Efficiency Act of 2024.

  • Expand EmPOWER’s successful discounts and rebates for energy audits, weatherization and efficient appliances by adding new incentives for making the switch to efficient, electric appliances and heating

  • Set pollution reduction targets. Direct the Public Service Commission to set greenhouse gas emission reduction goals to align the program with the state’s climate goals.

  • Stop spending ratepayer dollars on subsidies for polluting gas appliances and home heating.

  • Deliver savings directly to Maryland households by encouraging utilities to invest in in-home improvements and requiring them to achieve 80% of goals from in-building savings.

  • Expand access for low-income households to state and federal funds for energy efficiency and whole-home retrofits by enabling fuel switching and hiring multilingual community outreach specialists.

  • Reduce cost to ratepayers by rightsizing utility profits.

Our goal is simple – adjust the EmPOWER program to prioritize reducing pollution while maintaining the program’s focus on efficiency – because the cleanest energy of all is the energy we don’t use.

Building on a History of Success

The EmPOWER Maryland Energy Efficiency Act of 2008 created the EmPOWER program to incentivize energy efficiency and conservation efforts. EmPOWER includes a utility run program of rebates, weatherizations and other efficiency updates, as well as similar programs targeted at limited income consumers, which are run by the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development. In 2023 Gov. Moore signed a new law to improve the DHCD-run program.

Since 2008, EmPOWER Maryland has:

  • Created lifetime savings of over $12.7 billion from an investment of $3.5 billion in efficiency.

  • Reduced greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of at least 9.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, equal to taking 2 million cars off the road for a year.

  • Provided Marylanders with free or discounted energy audits, weatherization, and efficient appliances and provided businesses with discounts and incentives for energy efficient upgrades.

Energy efficiency is one of the smartest investments that Maryland can make.

What are the benefits of energy efficiency?

  • By reducing the amount of energy people consume and reducing the amount of infrastructure needed to provide that energy, efficiency improvements help ratepayers pay less on their utility bills. That’s because energy efficiency improvements are often a cheaper way for utilities to meet electricity demand than generating and distributing electricity.

  • Burning fossil fuels, both indoors and out, produces air pollution that can cause a range of health problems, from damage to the lungs and heart to cancer to mental health and cognitive issues.

  • By reducing fossil fuel combustion in buildings and from power plants, as well as the leaks of pollutants like methane associated with fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure, energy efficiency reduces greenhouse gas emissions and thus helps fight global warming and climate damage.

  • IBy reducing the amount of energy required to meet the needs of the public, energy efficiency reduces the total amount of dirty fossil fuel generation that must be replaced by clean renewable sources in order to protect public health and prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Energy efficiency also reduces the number of costly upgrades to electricity transmission and distribution systems that are needed, significantly easing the transition to renewable energy and reducing the time, costs and other resources required to make it.tem description