Who is ready for more sticker shock at the grocery store? Well…get ready. It’s going to happen right here in Maryland.
On March 1, the Senate Committee on Education, Energy and the Environment voted favorably on Senate Bill 1, which means it will now go to the Senate for likely approval. If passed, it will end retail energy competition and choice in Maryland, and take us back to the days when everyone was forced to shop with the government-backed utilities.
It’s arguably the most anti-business and anti-consumer bill I’ve ever seen brought before the General Assembly. And if possible, the bill has gotten even worse.
Amendments have been added to the bill that will prohibit a green energy producer from marketing “green energy” unless it has been approved as such by the Public Service Commission. Which must, according to the bill language, consider THE STATE WHERE THE RENEWABLE ENERGY WAS PRODUCED.
Here’s what this means:
There will be even more pressure to chew up Maryland farmland for the installation of solar panels.
As a result, there will be fewer family farms producing less food for local consumption, and prices at the grocery store will go up even more than they already have.
That’s basic economics.
To summarize, we will be paying even more for our electricity because that’s what always happens in a monopoly.
And now we will pay more for our milk, bread, eggs and vegetables.
This is a windfall for the big utilities and it is a land grab for big energy corporations. It is a punch in the gut for consumers who don’t need and cannot afford to deal with higher costs at the grocery store.
Senate Bill 1 is anti-business. It is anti-consumer. And it is anti-green energy. Please contact your senator and delegates today and ask them to tap the brakes and think this through before voting for a bad bill.
Len N. Foxwell is the principal of Tred Avon Strategies and the former chief of staff to Comptroller Peter V. R. Franchot
0 Responses
Mr. Foxwell writes:
“Here’s what this means:
There will be even more pressure to chew up Maryland farmland for the installation of solar panels.
As a result, there will be fewer family farms producing less food for local consumption, and prices at the grocery store will go up even more than they already have.
That’s basic economics.”
It’s more like a slippery slope fallacy than basic economics.
Co-locating solar panels and commercial agriculture can actually increase commercial food production while also improving solar panel performance when done correctly. Family farms will earn revenues through farming and the leasing of land to the energy companies.
For further reading:
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/03/made-shade-growing-crops-solar-farms-yields-efficiency
This article is written by a lobbyist for the large utility companies and fails to point out that when we deregulated our utility in Maryland we experienced a 72% rate increase . It also leaves out that the majority of customers have very little choice in the utility provider unless they want to be subjected to shady business practices that rely on shady business practices by signing people up for low introductory rates only to receive massive utility bills after the introductory rate expires. Big utility companies are opinion bombing local publications on behalf of large utility companies. I would be wary to believe anything that this person says considering their profit driven motivations.
Lobbyist website- https://www.tredavonstrategies.com/
Article about Maryland deregulation- https://www.wsj.com/articles/electricity-deregulation-utility-retail-energy-bills-11615213623
Article on bad actors in the deregulated market- https://www.baltimoresun.com/2023/04/16/complaints-on-the-rise-alleging-deceptive-practices-by-third-party-gas-and-electric-suppliers-in-maryland/
“As a result, there will be fewer family farms producing less food for local consumption, and prices at the grocery store will go up even more than they already have.
That’s basic economics.”
No, this is just basic ignorance. The food system, alas, does not follow basic economics at this point. Anyone who believes that local family farms are providing a significant proportion of the food in a grocery store doesn’t know the first thing about food systems in Maryland or the US. This statement is so patently false that it’s clear this is not an argument being offered in good faith, but that the letter writer has an ulterior motive.