Democratic Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson is backing legislation to strip trash incinerations from the state’s renewable energy subsidy program — a policy shift that could directly benefit the solar company that now employs him.
Lawmakers are quietly folding the proposal into a broader energy package set for a vote before the legislature adjourns Monday. If it passes, millions in taxpayer-funded renewable energy credits could be redirected from waste-to-energy plants to solar firms like CI Renewables, where Ferguson took a job last year.
Ferguson, of Baltimore, announced in June that he had accepted the job with CI Renewables, a company that finances and develops large-scale solar projects in Maryland and along the East Coast. He retained his leadership position in the state Senate, where he now holds near-total control over which legislation advances.
Ferguson told the Daily Caller News Foundation his employment did not violate any ethical rules, and that “most all of [Maryland lawmakers] have outside jobs. So just like we have a doctor in the Senate who works on healthcare issues — the theory of a part-time legislature is that you bring expertise into the long legislative process.”
“Before I even considered this position with CI [Renewables], I spoke to our ethics council,” Ferguson continued. “I made sure we had clear lines of where problems could arise in the case that there was something in Maryland, and I disclosed it all through all of our public filings. We’ll continue to always disclose it — it’s something that’s really important … can’t be in a way that’s personally beneficial, and we maintain very strict ethics rules here in Maryland.”