Maryland Now’s first season opens with an examination of how a single piece of legislation from 1999 reshaped Maryland’s electricity market and helped set the stage for some of the energy challenges the state faces today.
Hosts Dori Henry, Josh Kurtz, and David Nitkin walk through the political forces, policy decisions, and long-term consequences that contribute to the high electric bills Marylanders are opening this winter.
With energy prices rising sharply and lawmakers under pressure to respond, this episode connects the past to the present and highlights why the 2026 legislative session is so pivotal.
Remember Enron?
Marylanders across the state are seeing high utility bills after weeks of freezing temperatures. At the same time, the General Assembly has kicked off a session that will be dominated by energy policy, affordability, and the search for solutions.
This episode explores why electricity prices are spiking, how data centers and the grid operator’s planning failures are driving demand, why there are no short-term fixes, the political pressure of an election year, the influence of utilities, lobbyists, and major industrial players, and how consumers often get sidelined in complex policy debates.
The primary reporting in the episode reaches back to 1999, when Maryland lawmakers — under pressure from Enron, industrial giants, and legislative leaders — passed a sweeping deregulation bill that fundamentally changed how electricity is generated and sold.
You’ll hear insights from three major players from that 1999 legislative debate — and from a consumer advocate who helps Marylanders struggling with their utility bills. They break down the rushed negotiations, the rate freezes, the political maneuvering, and the ripple effects that still shape Maryland’s energy landscape.
Key sources
In this episode, you’ll hear from major figures who have been setting Maryland energy policy for decades, including:
Fred Hoover, currently a member of the Maryland Public Service Commission, who in 1999 was head of the Maryland Energy Administration:
“Enron was probably the prime mover in the sense of they were the ones that tried to recruit other entities to be involved in this. They were a national energy company and, and they were involved in retail efforts all across the country, and they sort of came to Maryland and claimed that if we move to retail provision of electricity that everybody would save money – not just industrial customers, but their contention was the residential customers would too.”
Michael Powell, chief State House lobbyist for the state’s major industrial companies
“I’ve never seen bills that had that many meetings and hearings. It wasn’t the usual parade of people coming in and out. It was me, [BGE Counsel] Bob [Fleischmann], and Office of People’s Counsel sitting at the table for hours answering questions and going through the terms of the bills.”
Dereck Davis, Maryland Treasurer and former member of the House Environmental Matters Committee
“The Senate President; the Speaker of the House wanted it, particularly the Senate President. He was convinced that this was gonna be a game changer for Maryland. And the rest of us, I mean, if I’m just being honest, we didn’t know what to think or, or how to react.”
Connect With the Show
Questions, comments, or ideas for future episodes can be sent to:
marylandnow@blendedpublicaffairs.com
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I disagree with their opinions.
MD and many northeast states had ongoing state political cronyism levied through party PSC appointee approvals of electric policies that were unwound with deregulation in 1999. Unfortunately for the customers, the states found a way to get back in to the game by instituting green energy requirements to retail markets forcing state policies accordingly. Now MD closed 6 GW of dispatchable dependable depreciated assets as part of the Democratic green energy push.
Was Green Energy policy another grift for the democrats? One must wonder why they would push electrifying everything, EV cars and eliminating natural gas furnaces for heat pumps while pushing insane green policies? They want to blame it on data centers but as PJM has pointed out, future capacity prices are being driven by data centers but not current prices. How much political patronage could have been part of the poor decision? Time will tell.
All I know, as a NYC mayoral candidate, in response to every question, said years ago (“the rents too high”), the utility rates are too high! Our last two bills coming in at $1,500.00+
Why don’t the giant AI companies, bitcoin operators and data centers pay for electric expansion? They’re the ones using too much electricity.