Progress to Date

Strategies

• Fully participate in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the nations first energy cap-and-trade auction. 
• Assertively implement the Maryland Clean Cars Program and actively support the development of clean cars technologies.
• Expand the State Agency Loan Program to fund energy efficiency improvements. 
• Effectively implement the EmPOWER Maryland residential and industrial/commercial initiatives, to assist Maryland residents and businesses with energy efficiency upgrades. 
• Expand energy efficient appliance and lighting rebates and other efforts to steer customers towards the purchase of super-efficient appliances and lighting.
• Double transit ridership in Maryland by 2020.
• Achieve the State’s renewable energy goal, which requires that Maryland’s electricity suppliers  provide 20% of their total electricity from such renewable resources as solar, wind, biomass, landfill gas, and hydroelectric power by 2022.
• Conduct a greenhouse gas inventory and forecast for understanding the magnitude of all greenhouse gas emission sources and sinks in Maryland.
• Pursue integrated planning for land use and location efficiency to develop and implement smarter, more sustainable growth policies and practices.
• Expand "Buy Local" programs to promote and support the production and consumption of local agricultural and other products. 
• Established the Maryland Commission on Climate Change and drafted a Climate Action Plan for the State.  
• Launched the Coast Smart Communities Initiative to assist Maryland coastal communities in adapting to sea level rise and other hazards.
• Initiated the Forest Carbon Sequestration Project to demonstrate how various forest management scenarios can be used to sequester carbon and offset the State’s greenhouse gas emissions. 
• Initiated the Maryland Environmental Footprint Mitigation Initiative to measure and reduce State government’s total environmental impact, including carbon emissions, water use, waste and wastewater production, and storm water runoff.

Read the more detailed plan to achieve this important environmental goal...

Delivering Results

• So far, more than 2,500 families have benefitted from our energy audits and retrofits, and Maryland utility companies are now offering their own audits, achieving savings of up to 40 percent of annual gas and electric bills.
• Enacted the Maryland Greenhouse Gas Reduction Act of 2009.
• The Administration is currently developing and implementing a more immediate greenhouse gas reduction plan to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by the end of 2020.
• Participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) beginning in 2009 , generating more than $25 million for Maryland to invest in clean energy programs. 
• Adopted California Clean Cars Standards , keeping our skies clean.      
• Accelerating Maryland Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS).      
• Facilitated the beneficial use of thousands of tons of fly-ash by supporting the establishment of a new cement plant in WVA. The new facility is devouring 60 years worth of fly-ash from a Maryland Power Plant.  Every ton of ash used in the manufacture of cement prevents a ton of CO2 from going into the atmosphere.
• Approved expansion of Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, paving the way for the generation of 1,700 megawatts of non greenhouse gas emitting electricity.
• Obtained 2,684,815 MWH of renewable electricity in 2008, which equates to avoided GHG emissions of almost 1.4 million tons per year
• Tripled amount of solar energy produced in Maryland through Project Sunburst, established in April 2010.

Progress toward delivery is monitored by the GDU, and assessed regularly at agency and cross-agency Stat meetings.