April 9th, 2019 by WCBC Radio

One of the more controversial bills that went down to the wire last night in the Maryland General Assembly is a measure to increase Maryland’s use of renewable energy. The House gave the bill preliminary approval Saturday. The Senate has passed the measure, but the House made some changes.  The Senate version would have eliminated trash incineration as eligible for subsidies like wind and solar energy, a provision that was in the bill initially. But the House put the provision back in to allow waste-to-energy to be in the “top tier” of renewable energy. The bill would increase the state’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard from 25% by 2020 to 50% by 2030.  The differences in the bill were being debated into the final hours of the session. One of those strongly opposed to the measure is 1B Delegate Jason Buckel who says that bottom line is that this will lead to utility rate hikes…