Scott Dance reports for the Baltimore Sun:

Not all environmentalists are cheering the Maryland General Assembly’s approval Monday of incentives that double down on utility customers’ investment in renewable energy.

They all agree reaching a goal of 50% green energy by 2030 would help reduce greenhouse gases and combat climate change. But some say a bill approved in the final hour of the legislature’s annual session will only magnify a wrinkle in state policy that rewards carbon-emitting trash incinerators and paper mills with millions of dollars in green energy subsidies that are funded through energy bills.

“Thank you for your efforts to move Maryland towards a clean energy economy,” Caroline Eader wrote Tuesday in an e-mail to state lawmakers.

But Eader, director of a group called Zero Waste for Zero Lost, then urged them to abandon the measure if Gov. Larry Hogan vetoes it, as some expect him to do.

“Then next year we can come together with a renewable standard that is truly clean,” she wrote.

The legislation was a central piece of environmentalists’ agenda, considered key to reversing recent declines in solar industry jobs in Maryland, and to reducing the state’s carbon footprint. It requires utilities across the state to invest increasing amounts each year in solar generation across the state and other types of renewable power projects, including wind farms, across a larger grid that covers all or part of 13 states.

Ratepayers subsidize the utility investments, subsidies that amounted to $72 million in 2017.

Supporters said this year’s legislative debate came down to a choice between standing firm on a push to end the green energy subsidies for trash-to-energy facilities, or giving it up to advance the 50% renewable energy proposal on their third try in as many years. There were also concerns among lawmakers about a loss of union jobs at those plants, and at paper mills that receive subsidies for generating power using a substance known as black liquor.

The decision became easier amid Baltimore and Montgomery County politicians’ growing resolve to close trash incinerators in their jurisdictions, said Mike Tidwell, executive director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. The Wheelabrator Baltimore incinerator near Russell Street and Interstate 95 is the city’s largest single source of industrial air pollution, while burning hundreds of thousands of tons of household waste from across the region.

“We fought as long as we could,” Tidwell said of the trash incineration subsidies, which the state Senate voted to end in March. “This is a dramatic bill. The General Assembly has passed a wonderful and aggressive plan to increase solar and wind power in our state.”

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