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Executive Summary
By tapping its energy efficiency potential and developing its renewable energy resources, Maryland can meet its electricity needs while producing less global warming pollution than it does today. With a strong cap on global warming emissions from the state’s seven oldest coalfired power plants, Maryland could reduce its global warming emissions from those facilities by at least 15 percent below current levels by 2018 by using energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Global warming presents a serious threat to Maryland’s environment, economy and way of life. • Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 31 percent, a rate of increase unprecedented in the past 20,000 years. As a result, global average temperatures have begun to rise. The decade from 1990 to 2000 was the warmest decade in 1,000 years.
• The first signs of global warming have already begun to appear in Maryland. The average temperature in College Park has increased by 2.4° F in the past 100 years. Rising sea levels, combined with land subsidence, have swallowed 13 islands in the Chesapeake Bay and consume 260 acres of land each year.
• Temperatures in Maryland are projected to increase by 2° to 9° F by 2100, and precipitation could increase by 20 percent. As a result of these changes, Maryland will likely experience worse air quality, increased insect-borne disease, declining agricultural production and the loss of plant and animal species, including the Baltimore Oriole, the state bird.
• Ocean levels are expected to rise another 19 inches by 2100. Thousands of acres of land, especially on the Eastern Shore, are vulnerable to complete submersion or to inundation during high tides.
Electricity generation, especially from coal-fired power plants, is a major source of Maryland’s global warming pollution.
• The state’s seven oldest coal-fired power plants are responsible for approximately 31 percent of Maryland’s emissions of carbon dioxide, releasing 23.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2004.
• Electricity demand is projected to rise by 25 percent by 2018, potentially increasing global warming emissions from the state’s dirtiest plants.
Maryland can limit future increases in global warming pollution by establishing strong emission reduction targets for the state’s oldest coal-fired power plants.
• A carbon cap would establish a maximum allowable level of emissions from coal plants. Facilities would be required to hold allowances for each unit of carbon dioxide they emit. Those that reduce pollution below the cap level would be able to sell their excess allowances to plants that emit more than the cap allows.
The most reasonable approaches to reducing the need for power from coal-fired plants—and thus cutting emissions—are energy efficiency measures to reduce consumption and full implementation of the state’s renewable energy standard to increase generation from clean sources.
• The state has sufficient efficiency potential to reduce power demand by 14 million megawatt-hours (MWh), or 16.5 percent of total electricity demand projected for 2018. This would return electricity demand in 2018 to 2006 levels.
• Maryland’s renewable energy standard (RES) requires that 7 percent of the electricity consumed in the state come from clean, renewable sources by 2018. Assuming Maryland enacts strong efficiency measures to control demand for electricity, the RES could result in the generation of 4.7 million MWh of clean electricity.
• By stabilizing demand for electricity, energy efficiency measures would ease pressure to increase electricity production at carbon-intensive coal plants. Carbon-free renewable energy could substitute for some of the power currently produced at coal plants. Under this scenario, emissions at the state’s oldest coal-fired power plants could be reduced by 15 percent in 2018.
It is clear that Maryland can achieve dramatic reductions in the amount of pollution generated from the state’s seven oldest coal plants. To capture this potential, the state should:
• Establish a strong goal for reducing global warming emissions from coalfired power plants.
• Structure the carbon cap so that revenues generated by the auctioning of emission allowances support additional carbon reduction efforts, including energy efficiency.
• Ensure full implementation of the renewable energy standard. Consider pursuing greater development of renewable energy resources to increase the amount of carbon-free power Maryland consumes.
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