Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore hopes to raid millions from a green program to offset the state’s budget woes.
Moore’s 2027 budget proposal would transfer roughly $300 million from the Strategic Energy Investment Fund (SEIF) to help close the state’s $1.5 billion cash shortfall. The proposal would shrink the fund from more than $800 million to “$164 million in a targeted fashion” for some other green initiatives. Moore raided the fund in 2025, transferring $200 million for electricity bill rebates as affordability emerged as a political headache for Republicans and Democrats alike.
The stated goal of the SEIF fund is to “support local communities as they adopt clean energy policies. Communities benefit from sustained reduction of energy usage, cost savings, and opportunities for renewable energy development.”
SEIF receives a significant portion of its funding from alternative compliance payments — a fee utilities pay when they fail to meet certain green energy standards. Given that utilities turn to ratepayers to make up for compliance costs, some critics are concerned that Marylanders are shouldering the burden for the state’s green energy policies.
“Under Wes Moore’s proposal, Maryland’s working families are billed twice,” Communications Director for Power The Future Larry Behrens told the Daily Caller News Foundation. They pay first through their taxes and again through their utility bills, just so Governor Moore can prop up a bloated bureaucracy. It’s clear his focus on fiscal common sense seems about as razor sharp as his attention to sewer pipes on the Potomac.”
“As costs have skyrocketed on nearly everything under the Trump administration, Governor Moore remains laser-focused on making the state more affordable for families, investing in the priorities they care about, and balancing the budget for the fourth year in a row,” a spokesperson for Moore told the DCNF. “He believes we can walk and chew gum at the same time, which includes making historic investments in clean energy and climate action while delivering direct relief to everyday people.”
Moore is up for reelection in 2026, while Maryland and several other Democratic states are suffering from high electricity rates. Maryland’s grid operator, known as PJM Interconnection, is drawing criticism as residents flag concerns about rising electricity costs. PJM helps provide power to all or parts of 13 states and the District of Columbia, according to its website.
Electricity rates and grid instability have been on the rise in the East Coast for years, particularly in the states that rely on green energy resources and have aimed to phase out dispatchable power sources like coal. Costs have climbed in states along PJM like Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — all of which are states that have made net-zero pledges or plan to phase out coal plants to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Notably, Democrat-led states generally have higher energy costs, according to a December report from the Institute for Energy Research.
“SEIF money makes Maryland’s energy more affordable, cleaner and reliable through programs offered by MEA and other state agencies,” state materials on SEIF claim. “These programs address: consumer energy costs, global climate change concerns, job creation, energy resilience, economic development, business retention, and energy freedom.”
Prominent environmental organizations like the Sierra Club are reportedly fighting to preserve SEIF, with one spokesperson for the green group telling Maryland Matters that “to pull it back from its intended purposes and to use it to cover budget gaps is just unacceptable.”
Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey also criticized the move to use SEIF to balance the budget, telling the local publication that “at the end of the day, this is a hidden energy tax: Marylanders are overpaying because of Democratic mandates, and instead of giving that money back or fixing the policies that caused the problem, the Governor is using it to fund government operations. … That is not energy relief — it’s a shell game.”
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