Commentary

If we disagree with the contributions and political activities our bank or grocery store make, then we have the freedom to shop and do business with other companies. That’s not the case with our energy providers operating under state-granted monopolies, facing no competition for their services. In exchange for the monopolies, utilities have to submit to regulation by the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC), which determines how much utilities are able to charge customers and how they can spend that money.

It’s only one election, for one House seat in New York, and an oddly-timed, low-turnout affair, on a snowy day at that. Still, both parties treated the race to replace expelled Republican George Santos as a real-world test of voter sentiment on immigration in the wake of Congress’s collapsed border deal. Echoing former president Donald Trump, whose opposition sabotaged the deal in the Senate, Republican candidate Mazi Pilip called the measure “an absolute non-starter because it simply puts into law the invasion currently happening at our southern border.”

Even as it searches high and low for funds to support ambitious climate goals, the state is forcing gas utility customers to subsidize billions of dollars in fossil fuel infrastructure spending. In competitive markets, companies don’t spend billions of dollars on long-lived assets without believing they have a product customers will want for a long time. Absent strong future demand, the investment won’t be profitable and could lead to investor losses and, ultimately, bankruptcy.

One measure currently before the Maryland General would close a gap in the state’s criminal record expungement eligibility. The bill, HB0073, would change the definition of terms in the Maryland code, clarifying that the timeline for expunging an eligible state criminal record begins at the completion of the sentence — meaning the “time when a sentence has expired, including any period of probation, parole or mandatory supervision.”

The plan for the redevelopment of Harborplace deserves all the attention it’s getting, but even more deserving are the ambitious plans to finally deal with Baltimore’s 13,000-plus vacant homes on the east and west sides of the city. Funded fully and managed wisely, the long-term plan rolled out late last year by Mayor Brandon Scott, the Greater Baltimore Committee and Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development (BUILD) could raise the overall quality of life in the city.

As governor of Maryland, I signed the Electric Customer Choice and Competition Act of 1999. One provision of the wide-ranging law was to allow competitive energy suppliers to sell electricity directly to residential customers. These alternative energy suppliers assured everyone that by creating competition for Maryland’s regulated electric utilities, commercial, small business and residential customers would save on their power bills.

“Building more will help to bring prices down.” Governor Wes Moore didn’t mince words in his State of the State address last week when talking about his ambitious proposal to address Maryland’s 96,000-home shortage. His package of bills–which we’re calling Moore Housing–would address the restrictive zoning and permitting laws in much of the state that make it hard to build homes, especially townhomes or apartments.