May 16, 2007—Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed three bills recently to encourage energy efficiency and renewable energy within the state, according to the US Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
Senate Bill 103, the Maryland Clean Cars Act of 2007, requires the state’s Department of Environment to follow California’s lead in establishing a low-emissions vehicle program that will go into effect with the 2011 model year. The program will include limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
Senate Bill 332 establishes the Maryland Green Building Council, which will advise the governor and state legislators on how to use green building principles in state construction projects.
Senate Bill 595 modifies the state’s renewable energy requirement to include a minimum percentage of solar power, starting at 0.005 percent of retail electricity sales in 2008 and increasing to 2 percent of electricity sales by 2022. The bill also increases the maximum size of customer-owned, grid-connected power systems for net metering, which allows customers to earn credit for power fed back into the electrical grid, and requires utilities to provide net metering for up to 1,500 megawatts of customer-owned generation systems.
