Maryland Retail Energy Reform Bill Reported Out Of Committee, With Amendments

The Education, Energy, and Environment Committee of the Maryland Senate voted out SB0001 favorably as amended

Official text of the amendments were not immediately available

Senator Malcolm Augustine, the bill's sponsor, said that the amendments remove commercial customers from the bill and targets the bill's provisions to residential customers

During a mark-up, the amendments were also said to delay the requirement that individual retail energy salespersons must be licensed by the PSC, to July 1, 2025

The amendments also remove penalty provisions applicable to an individual sales agent, but the agent's company would still be subject to fines related to any violations due to the salesperson's behavior

The bill maintains a limit of 12 months for term contracts, and such contracts must be at or below the trailing 12-month SOS average rate, described as similar to the current process in New York

Auto-renewals would be allowed, but renewal pricing would be subject to the trailing 12-month SOS average price cap

Renewable energy products, meeting a definition in the bill, would not be subject to the SOS price cap, but such a product's pricing would be subject to PSC review

POR would be prohibited

Other previously described major provisions were not altered by the amendments. See more details in our prior story here