Political leaders in Democratic-led states in the East are turning up pressure to get more new carbon-free renewable energy projects underway in the face of President Donald Trump’s campaign to bring back coal power.
Officials from Maryland and New Jersey — taking a page from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D) playbook — said Tuesday their states would have to consider leaving PJM Interconnection, their region’s electric grid operator, if PJM can’t speed up approvals on its huge backlog of stalled solar and wind projects.
Earlier this year, Shapiro used a threat to leave the grid to get PJM to accept a price cap to limit maximum payments to generators that pledge to provide power from 2026 to 2028.
The Maryland and New Jersey officials spoke Tuesday during the rollout of a study from the clean advocacy group Evergreen Action on the need to accelerate wind, solar and energy storage projects to combat climate change and keep power shortages from inflating consumers’ utility bills.
