How Maryland is Taking Climate Action into Its Own Hands — While Cutting Energy Bills

With rising energy costs and increasingly extreme weather events, who wouldn’t want an $80 rebate on their electric bill right now? Even better, how about new protections to help prevent future bill increases and temper the climate crisis?

That’s the promise of Maryland’s new Next Generation Energy Act, a sweeping clean energy and affordability package whose passage earlier this year comes after smart, sustained legal advocacy by Earthjustice.

The new law includes provisions to prevent Marylanders from paying for unnecessary gas pipelines, utility lobbying, and the infrastructure for big data centers in their energy bills, all while growing clean energy storage in the state. It’s also the latest big win in Earthjustice’s Right To Zero (RTZ) campaign — a state-by-state advocacy effort to electrify vehicles and buildings and run them all on 100% clean energy, no matter who’s in federal office.

For Marylanders and others around the country facing skyrocketing energy prices and increasingly extreme weather, Maryland’s new clean energy law shows a better path forward. But to ensure this must-pass legislation offered the best possible outcome for utility customers and the climate when it was first introduced, it needed an advocate. One who could look at the elaborate web of cords that is state energy policy and know how to untangle them.

Earthjustice knew just the right person for the job.

Susan Stevens Miller, Senior Attorney, Clean Energy Program. (Matt Roth for Earthjustice)

An Advocate Who’s Been on the Inside

As a legal advisor to the nation’s top energy regulators, Earthjustice attorney Susan Stevens Miller has seen firsthand how decisionmakers determine how we all power our lives — and whether it’s with clean or dirty energy.

For almost two decades, Miller worked on some of the energy sector’s most complex challenges while serving in the General Counsel’s Office at the Maryland Public Service Commission and at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Her job involved everything from keeping energy reliable and affordable to cleaning up massive messes like the Enron energy scandal.

In the late 1990s, a new challenge arose, this time around the public’s growing push to switch to clean energy to tackle climate change.

While Miller was excited about a clean energy transition, most energy utilities and the agencies who regulated them — including her employers — weren’t on board. Eventually, Miller joined Earthjustice and its new Right To Zero campaign. Key venues for this state-based clean energy transition work are public utility commissions (like the one that Miller worked for in Maryland), which are tasked with making sure energy is safe, reliable, and affordable for the public.

As one of Earthjustice’s first RTZ hires, it wasn’t long before Miller once again began shaping energy policy. Only this time, she was advocating directly for the people. One day, she might be convincing energy regulators that they have the authority to force utilities to clean up their power supply. The next day, she’s urging lawmakers to pass legislation that give those regulators even more authority to act. In addition, Miller also often works with various stakeholders on behalf of the governor to determine how Maryland can best achieve its electric car and truck goals.

“This multi-pronged approach ensures that all the key players are involved,” says Miller. “It’s vital to our success and can be replicated in any state.”

Earthjustice’s Right to Zero campaign and allies held an event in support of the Green Transit, Green Jobs bill at the New York State Capitol on Tuesday, January 30, 2024 . This critical bill will facilitate the transition to electric buses and promote good manufacturing jobs in New York State. (Patrick Dodson for Earthjustice)

A Winning Strategy

While the Trump administration is doing everything it can to stymie the clean energy transition, Earthjustice’s Right To Zero campaign is making clean energy progress in the states while also beating back Trump’s federal attacks. We won’t stop until we electrify everything and deliver the 100% clean energy future that we all deserve. We know the health of our planet — and every living thing that calls it home — depends on our success.

In California, where RTZ began in 2017, we’ve scored several wins that are transforming the energy sector and serving as the North Star for our growing zero emissions work. This includes legislation to shift California’s energy grid entirely off fossil fuels by 2045, as well as new rules to electrify public transit buses, cars, and boats. Most recently, we pushed California to pass groundbreaking legislationthat will lower utility bills and help the state plan for an electric future for homes and buildings.

Around the country, we’re pushing other states to supercharge their own clean energy transitions. In New York, for example, we’re utilizing the state’s cutting edge climate law to protect a NYC policy that cleans up climate pollution by electrifying large buildings. And in Colorado, utility giant Xcel Energy will spend over $252 million over the next four years on beneficial electrification programs as a result of our ongoing litigation efforts.

Building on this success, Earthjustice’s Midwest office launched its RTZ campaign in 2025 and is focusing first on advancing clean transportation in Illinois. Our work has included supporting advocacy for the state to adopt emissions standards that drive vehicle electrification and efforts to curb air pollution from freight activity.

Energy for Everyone

One of the keys to successfully pushing for clean energy policies across the country and in different political climates, says Miller, is to make sure that they provide multiple benefits to multiple people. Transitioning to clean energy shouldn’t just mean more wind turbines and solar panels for a select few. Everyone has a right to healthier air, a more stable climate, and good jobs driven by clean energy.

“Receiving the benefits of clean energy shouldn’t depend on where a person lives,” says Miller. “Ultimately, this growing multi-state effort is designed to ensure that no one is left behind.”