Breaking: House overrides Gov.’s clean energy veto

Last year, the legislature passed an expansion of the Renewable Portfolio Standard. The Clean Energy Jobs Act would have increased the requirement standard for renewables from 20% to 25% by 2020 and expanded the requirement for locally produced solar energy. Surprisingly, Governor Larry Hogan vetoed this legislation. It had previously passed both the House and Senate by comfortable margins.

The vote for the legislature to override the Governor’s veto was originally scheduled to take place last week but was delayed to make sure that all seats in the legislature were filled. In the meantime, MD SUN network members and solar supporters throughout the state got to work emailing and calling their legislators in support of the veto override.

According to Maryland law, a veto override requires a 3/5 majority. Today the House met and voted successfully to override the veto with 88 votes in favor of the override and 55 votes opposed. This is a great first step toward increasing the requirement for renewables in Maryland. The next step is for the Senate to meet and vote on the override. That is scheduled to happen on Thursday.

If you haven’t done so already, there’s still time to contact your state senator and ask them to support the override.