Maryland House Passes Retail Energy Reform Bill

The Maryland House has passed on third reading SB0001, the retail energy reform bill

The House-passed version of SB0001 differs from the Senate-passed version due to House committee amendments. The bill has been sent back to the Senate and awaits either Senate-acceptance of the House version, or a conference. Given the nature of the House amendments, a laborious conference process which threatens ultimate passage is not expected.

The House did not adopt any floor amendments to SB 0001

See background on the bill at the links below:

Senate version

House Committee version

The bill provides that a residential electricity supplier may only offer electricity, other than green power as defined in the bill, "at a price that does not exceed the trailing 12–month average of the electric company’s standard offer service rate in the electric company’s service territory as of the date of agreement with the customer[.]"

Residential plans may not exceed 12 months in length.

The bill would end POR specifically for residential receivables. This provision does not apply to municipal aggregations

See full details on the bill in our prior stories linked above