By Brian Shane

Staff Writer

Marylanders should start seeing the first of two rebates hit their electric bills this month after state leaders agreed to pledge $200 million in direct relief for ratepayers.

In fact, Berlin residential customers received a $53.88 credit. A note in the most recent bill from the town read, “Maryland House Bill 1035, enacted by Governor Wes Moore and the Maryland General Assembly in 2025, established the Legislative Energy Relief Refund to help offset high energy costs for residential customers in Maryland.”

Rebate amounts will vary based on a household’s energy use and by utility company, but most ratepayers can expect to see between $30 and $67 coming off their August or September electric bills, Gov. Wes Moore’s office announced Monday. A second rebate will land between January and February.

“The reason we are so passionate about the issue of energy affordability is because we hear from our constituents about it every day,” said Gov. Moore, a Democrat, in a statement “Marylanders are deeply frustrated, and their frustration is justified.”

Funding for the rebate comes from the state’s Strategic Energy Investment Fund, or SEIF, authorized by legislation the General Assembly passed earlier this year, called the Next Generation Energy Act.

The Next Generation Energy Act also expands financial support to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from multi-family residential buildings and establishes new standards to advance nuclear energy generation across the state, the governor’s office said.

The legislature created the SEIF in 2008 to receive proceeds from Maryland’s share of a regional carbon cap-and-trade initiative. The fund is supposed to be supported by multiple revenue streams, including by utilities that pay a compliance fee for not sourcing a certain percentage of electricity from renewable sources.

Maryland’s Public Service commission says some utilities have been known to pass the cost of that compliance fee onto customers, leading some Republicans in the General Assembly to criticize the Moore administration.

The GOP-led Freedom Caucus in its own statement accused Moore and state Democratic officials of “moving money around to make it look like they’re helping” instead of addressing the root cause of high utility rates, which they claim is a “relentless catering to environmental activists.”

“Governor Moore isn’t giving out relief – he’s just recycling ratepayer money Maryland families already paid on their utility bills,” Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey said Monday. “Instead of fixing the failed policies that caused rates to skyrocket in the first place, Democrats are raiding the (SEIF) as a short-term political gimmick.”

Moore’s office has publicly made cost-saving measures for Marylanders’ energy bills a priority this year.

The governor in June announced a new $19 million Customer Relief Fund to offer one-time financial assistance to low- and middle-income ratepayers for energy costs. Money from that fund is administered through nonprofit organizations to communities in need.

And, in May, Maryland joined a partnership with federal, state, and regional policymakers that’s pursuing cost-saving solutions for consumers and increased reliability of energy delivery. That collaboration is being called the Northeast States Collaborative on Interregional Transmission.