Suit argues companies’ First Amendment rights to market electricity will be violated
Large energy companies are suing the state in an attempt to block a new law that was designed to strengthen consumer protections in Maryland’s retail electricity marketplace.
The Retail Energy Advancement League and Green Mountain Energy Co. filed suit in U.S. District Court in Baltimore Tuesday, saying the state’s new guardrails on energy companies that compete with utilities violate the firms’ First Amendment rights and act as an impediment to Maryland’s clean energy mandates.
“For decades, retail energy providers have been able to lawfully market clean energy solutions to residential consumers in Maryland, explaining how their products are better for the environment than the service offered by the local incumbent utility, with benefits like combatting climate change,” the lawsuit says.
“But starting on January 1, 2025, a new Maryland law will prohibit these providers from truthfully and accurately describing these products, on pain of civil penalties, unless these providers agree with the government’s views on green energy,” it says.
The bill’s supporters said Tuesday that they are confident it can withstand this most-recent challenge.
The lawsuit is the latest chapter in the quarter-century saga over the state’s decision to deregulate its electricity marketplace.
When it passed in 1999, the deregulation measure was touted as a way to offer ratepayers more choice of electricity suppliers beyond the monopoly utilities that distribute the electrons — and potentially as a way to cut costs. About 300,000 customers buy electricity from competitive suppliers — though a vast majority of ratepayers opt for the default service supplied by local utilities.