Maryland
Is this nuclear power's moment in Maryland? – Maryland Matters
As Maryland officials scramble to meet the state’s ambitious clean energy mandates, they are coalescing around a concept that seemed unthinkable a decade ago: That nuclear energy must be part of the solution.
Even environmentalists are coming to terms with the idea.
Paul Pinsky, the director of the Maryland Energy Administration, and one of the leading climate advocates in Annapolis during his long tenure in the General Assembly, recalled protesting against nuclear power plants in the 1970s. Now, he says, nuclear has “become a staple” in the state and nation’s energy portfolio, even if many Americans don’t realize it.
“If you asked 100 people on the street if their lights came on because of nuclear energy, I would guess three people would know it,” Pinsky said.
The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Southern Maryland, which opened in 1975, generates about 40% of the energy produced in Maryland — all of it carbon-free. More than 80% of the clean energy generated in the state comes from the nuclear plant.
But nuclear continues to be hamstrung by a reputation, gained largely after high-profile disasters at power plants in the 1970s and 1980s, that it’s dangerous. The nuclear industry has also been struggling financially: Several nuclear power plants across the country have been decommissioned over the past few decades, in part because more natural gas power is being generated in the U.S. than ever before, which is far cheaper to produce.
Yet clean energy mandates have prompted policymakers to take another look at nuclear, knowing that whatever progress is being made developing other clean energy sources is inadequate for meeting short- and medium-term goals. In Maryland, the 2022 Climate Solutions Now legislation, which Pinsky co-sponsored, requires the state to create a 100% clean energy standard by 2035, while reaching zero carbon emissions by 2045.
For the past few years, stakeholders in Maryland’s nuclear industry have been angling for greater recognition — and possibly financial incentives — from state authorities, and they soon may get their wish.
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“We appreciate the fact that we’re hearing people talk about recognizing nuclear in the state’s clean energy program,” said Mason Emnett, director of public policy at Constellation Energy, which owns and operates Calvert Cliffs.
But four months before the kick-off of the 2025 General Assembly session, it isn’t clear yet if there will be concrete legislative action to bolster nuclear.
“We’re not exactly sure what to expect from the upcoming legislative session,” Emnett said. And at this stage, the industry does not appear to have a specific ask.
The leaders of the two relevant legislative committees in Annapolis, Senate Education, Energy and Environment Chair Brian J. Feldman (D-Montgomery) and House Economic Matters Chair C.T. Wilson (D-Charles), are both supportive of nuclear in the broadest sense. But neither seems ready just yet to advance or embrace specific legislation.
“There is a lot of discussion about how do we get to 100% clean energy by 2035 without nuclear being part of the picture?” Feldman said in a recent interview. He predicted that legislation would emerge in the next session addressing how to bolster clean energy production in Maryland.
Wilson said he expects legislation to be introduced “incentivizing new nuclear deals,” similar to measures from recent sessions that have attempted to bolster solar energy installations and offshore wind production in Maryland. He added that because it takes so long to develop new nuclear facilities, the state needs to act quickly to produce results that may not be realized for several years.
“It may be a very viable opportunity, but it’s way out in the future,” Wilson said in an interview. “It would be nice to start stimulating something.”
One possible legislative solution would be to include nuclear energy in the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which provides financial credits, known as RECs, for producers or suppliers of certain clean energy sources.
Every year in Annapolis, bills are introduced to tweak the RPS, usually to add a clean energy source to the standard or to eliminate one that’s considered dirty — or to change the complicated tiered system for calculating financial credits. But they rarely get very far, in part because they are complicated and cumbersome and are lobbied heavily by powerful interests that stand to gain or lose from the legislation.
For 2025, Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Montgomery), one of the leading environmentalists in the legislature and the top energy policy wonk, is contemplating legislation that would eliminate the RPS altogether and replace it with a system that would provide new and different types of incentives for clean energy producers. Charkoudian said the current RPS is flawed because it focuses on arcane compliance numbers without incentivizing clean energy production.
“We know we need to build energy generation in Maryland, and any generation we build in 2024 and beyond has to be clean,” she said. “That’s why we need to restructure our clean energy compliance. We need to do something that begins to address resource adequacy.”
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Charkoudian said any new system for incentivizing clean energy production would have to include nuclear, to ensure that Calvert Cliffs, the state’s only nuclear plant, stays open for the foreseeable future. The two reactors at the nuclear plant along the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby are licensed to operate through 2034 and 2036, respectively, and Constellation will begin the application process for renewing their licenses through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission late this decade.
Beyond Charkoudian’s proposed legislation, which is still being developed, “there’s going to be a large conversation [during the 2025 session] about our Renewable Portfolio Standard,” Feldman predicted.
Charkoudian said she expects some of her colleagues to advance nuclear bills in the upcoming session.
“I think there’s a range of thoughts about what they should be,” she said.
An economic challenge
The federal government, through the Inflation Reduction Act, currently has an incentive providing tax credits for nuclear energy production that lasts through 2032. Whether a dysfunctional Congress can extend it when it nears its expiration is very much an open question. But that credit, and any incentives for nuclear that the state can provide, will help to ensure Constellation’s robust investment in the Calvert Cliffs plant.
“The economics of nuclear continue to be a challenge,” Feldman said.
The Maryland Energy Administration is finalizing a rough draft of a report that will detail recommendations for how the state can meet is clean energy goals by 2035, and nuclear will inevitably part of the mix. A final report could be released by the end of the year.
Whether the report serves as a template for legislative action for Gov. Wes Moore’s administration remains to be seen.
“Alongside the state legislature and other stakeholders, the Moore-Miller Administration is continuing to explore all available options, including nuclear energy, to help to meet Maryland’s environmental and energy goals,” Carter Elliot IV, a spokesperson for Moore (D), said in an email. “The governor looks forward to supporting legislation and initiatives that will help Maryland secure its clean energy future.”
Late last year, between Christmas and New Year’s Day, the Maryland Department of the Environment released a meaty document outlining what the state needs to do meet its lofty climate mandates. Price tag: A minimum of $10 billion. State policymakers are still struggling to come up with ways to pay for the recommendations, at a time when the state is anticipating significant revenue shortfalls.
It’s possible that any report on clean energy strategies for Maryland could also involve robust government investment — a significant stumbling block to the state’s ambitions.
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If there is expansion of nuclear energy in Maryland in the future, it won’t be of the scale of another Calvert Cliffs power plant, because that’s not feasible given the fragile economics of the nuclear industry. When two new large reactors began operating at an existing Georgia nuclear plant in 2023 and 2024, respectively, it marked the first time that a large-scale nuclear facility opened or expanded in the U.S. in almost 40 years.
But nuclear advocates are increasingly optimistic about the commercial and operational prospects of a new technology known as small modular reactors, which can be located at far smaller sites than a full-scale nuclear plant operation. The federal government is pouring billions of dollars into research for the technology, and one of the beneficiaries is X-Energy Reactor Co. LLC, a company located in Rockville, just down the road from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission headquarters.
Yet even the most optimistic proponents of small modular reactors believe it will be a minimum of seven years before any of those facilities are operational and supplying power to the electric grid. And Charkoudian believes that unlike existing technologies that haven’t been fully adopted yet in the U.S., it is especially difficult to ask taxpayers and utility ratepayers to make investments in these facilities because they aren’t visible anywhere yet.
“It’s just not commercially available,” she said. “At least you can see that offshore wind exists in Europe. There’s no question about whether they’re viable.”
Data points
Any conversation about the need to generate more clean energy — and more energy altogether — cannot take place without discussing the likelihood that energy-consuming data centers are coming to Maryland. Even without data centers, Maryland needs more energy generation and transmission. With them, the need expands exponentially.
“Data centers are like a huge tick that you put on our grid, and wherever you put it, they can start sucking that energy out,” said Wilson, the House Economic Matters chair.
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Already there is controversy over a proposed transmission line project that would run through three Maryland counties on its way to data centers in Northern Virginia. And while a big data center hub is in the early stages of development in Frederick County, some big technology companies are now eyeing the Calvert Cliffs nuclear property as a possible location for a data center.
During this year’s legislative session, as lawmakers debated a measure to restructure the electricity market in Maryland, the House attempted to insert an amendment that dealt with the complicated topic of onsite electricity generation and how electric suppliers interact with their largest commercial customers. It would have effectively prevented Constellation from building a data center on the Calvert Cliffs property.
The amendment was dropped on the final day of the legislative session after House-Senate negotiations, but Constellation continues to talk to tech companies about a data center at Calvert Cliffs. It isn’t a widespread practice in the industry yet, but it’s likely to become one: Talen Energy Corp., which operates the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station nuclear plant in Berwick, Pa., generates electricity for an adjacent data center, which it sold earlier this year to Amazon Web Services.
And Constellation announced Friday that it had reached an agreement with Microsoft to reopen the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania – site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, in 1979 – to help power Microsoft’s data centers. Under the agreement, the plant, which was mothballed in 2019, could reopen as soon as 2028.
“It makes perfect sense to place a data center adjacent to your power providing center,” said Del. Mark N. Fisher (R-Calvert), whose district includes the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant. “The closer you are to the power supply, the more secure your data center is.”
But that potential development has also sparked a debate about whether a data center next to a nuclear site would effectively be siphoning off a significant portion of power that’s meant to go on the electric grid.
“We’ve been telling our customers that [nuclear plants] are there for the grid, but now we’re taking them off the grid,” said Vincent Duane, a principal at Copper Monarch LLC, an electricity markets and cybersecurity consulting firm. He spoke at a conference on data centers last month sponsored by the Maryland Tech Council.
Nuclear advocates counter that the electricity is going to be consumed anyway, regardless of whether the data center is near a power plant or not. Setting up a data center that feeds directly off a power plant will reduce the need for expensive electric transmission updates, they argue, and income that the nuclear company takes in from a data center could prompt more investments and more efficient power generation at the nuclear plant.
“You have a question of configuration — how do you plug it in?” said Emnett, the Constellation executive. “Do you plug it in to the generator or do you plug it in to the grid?”
That’s one of many questions that Maryland policymakers and regulators will have to consider as they contemplate the possible expansion of nuclear energy in the state.
BALTIMORE (WBFF) — A Baltimore nonprofit run by a Maryland lawmaker received more than $100 million in taxpayer dollars while auditors repeatedly flagged problems with its financial reporting and internal oversight, according to a Spotlight on Maryland investigation.
Del. Dana Stein, a Baltimore County Democrat, has worked as the executive director of Civic Works for roughly two decades while serving in the statehouse. Civic Works, which has received about $145 million in taxpayer funding since 2016, runs workforce, housing, environmental and community revitalization programs, primarily in the Baltimore area.
Stein earns more than $200,000 annually at Civic Works and has served in the General Assembly since 2007. He chairs the Maryland House environmental subcommittee. Civic Works receives government funding for programs involving weatherization, energy efficiency, clean-energy workforce development and environmental projects.
Stein insisted he goes through the proper process of reporting conflicts of interest to the State House and recusing himself from relevant votes. Meanwhile, critics say that State House policies are not enough to prevent Stein from taking advantage of his legislative influence over billions of taxpayer dollars, especially amid ongoing audit struggles at his organization.
A Spotlight on Maryland analysis of the nonprofit’s federal single audits—the annual audits required for organizations that spend at least $750,000 in federal funds—shows Civic Works received about $145 million in taxpayer funding between 2016 and 2025. Government funding averaged about $14.5 million per year and accounted for roughly 80% of the organization’s support during that period when stacked against private donations.
Audits show that federal funds were passed through to Civic Works by an extensive list of agencies within the Maryland and Baltimore City governments.
In 2006, the year before Stein took office, Civic Works received $1.9 million in government grants, according to IRS tax filings. By 2016, Civic Works received $8.2 million in government grants—a roughly 330% increase over a decade.
IRS tax filings from Civic Works show Stein earned about $96,000 in 2014 and approximately $231,000 in 2024—an increase of about 140%.
Maryland Del. Brian Chisholm, an Anne Arundel County Republican, questioned the ethics of Stein making more than $200,000 at a taxpayer-funded nonprofit as he works in the State House. He also questioned how Stein could manage tens of millions of taxpayer dollars while he worked full-time as a lawmaker for roughly a quarter of the year.
“I think it’s a waste of taxpayer money, in my opinion, because I don’t see the return on investment,” he told Spotlight on Maryland. “I would assume they’re political payoffs It goes back to the dawn of time when we first got into politics and power. How do you influence politics? You influence with money.”
What the audits found
The most recent single audit, covering fiscal 2025, reported a significant deficiency in financial reporting at Civic Works—a repeat finding from the previous year. Auditors said Civic Works had to correct more than $2.2 million in financial records after auditors identified errors in the organization’s financial records. Civic Works told auditors it implemented new grant-tracking and financial reporting procedures in response.
Auditors also determined the nonprofit did not qualify for the federal government’s low-risk auditee designation.
The 2024 audit identified both a significant deficiency and a material weakness, a more severe audit finding. Auditors said the organization’s initial federal expenditures schedule omitted programs, misclassified expenditures and left off about $1 million in federal spending before it was corrected. Auditors again determined Civic Works did not qualify as a low-risk auditee.
The pattern stretches back years. In 2023, auditors reported a material weakness involving lease accounting and financial reporting that resulted in a restatement of prior-year balances. In 2021, auditors reported a material weakness involving revenue recognition and accounting, resulting in another financial restatement.
In 2019, auditors identified a significant deficiency involving federal grant compliance after required documentation for an employee background check could not be produced. In 2017, auditors reported a significant deficiency after required federal grant reports were submitted without documented review.
Linda Parsons, a professor at The University of Alabama focused on nonprofit accounting, said the repeated audit findings, paired with a determination that Civic Works is not a low-risk auditee, show the organization should not continue to receive taxpayer dollars.
“I would be particularly careful with this organization if I were providing grant funding,” she told Spotlight on Maryland. “What I see is that a lawmaker with influence and power in the granting process is moving increasingly large grants to an organization with which that lawmaker is affiliated, and that there’s trouble with the reports that are overseeing the use of those grants.”
Chisholm agreed that Civic Works should not receive any more taxpayer money.
“I think they need to be looked at with a fine-tooth comb. Why are you failing so many audits, and do you actually deserve the millions of dollars?” he told Spotlight on Maryland. “The funding should dry up at some point because you can’t prove that you’re spending the public’s money in a responsible way.”
Civic Works responds
A spokeswoman for Civic Works emailed Spotlight on Maryland a statement on behalf of the organization and Stein, emphasizing that the lawmaker takes necessary steps to ensure there is not a conflict of interest between his two jobs.
“Since his election in 2006, Mr. Stein has regularly consulted with the legislature’s ethics adviser to avoid actual and potential conflicts between his legislative and non-profit roles. He has always followed the ethics adviser’s advice regarding disclosure of potential conflicts and actual recusal on votes. He has disclosed and disclaimed potential or appearances of a conflict and those forms are on the Maryland General Assembly website,” the Civic Works spokeswoman wrote.
“Mr. Stein has followed all advice from the legislature’s ethics adviser regarding recusal from matters that would create a conflict of interest between his legislative and non-profit roles. He does not interact with government officials in matters related to procurements or negotiation of contracts,” she added.
Salary spending increases 100%
IRS filings show Civic Works expanded rapidly in recent years amid audit struggles. The nonprofit reported 286 employees in 2020 and 347 employees in 2024—a roughly 21% increase—while spending on salaries increased from $5.8 million to $12 million—a roughly 100% increase. Payroll accounted for between 58% and 68% of annual spending during those years.
Stein lists his position with Civic Works on his financial disclosure statement. His disclosure also lists the state agencies from which his nonprofit receives funding.
Stein filed a Form D disclaimer of an apparent or presumed conflict of interest this year, noting that while Civic Works has a partnership with BGE, he is “able to participate in legislative action relating to the above fairly, objectively, and in the public interest.”
Since 2013, Stein has filed 25 Form E statements of recusal from voting and other legislative actions due to a reported conflict of interest arising from his employment with Civic Works. However, the last recusal he reported was in 2023, even though his organization received taxpayer dollars from the Maryland government in subsequent years.
‘Accountable to the public’
Parsons said that while Stein may be following legally required conflict-of-interest policies, he still has a concerning level of influence over the grantmaking process.
“The conflict of interest, that to me is probably the most troubling thing,” she told Spotlight on Maryland. “If you have an individual that’s in charge of a nonprofit that’s also elected to office, that’s not necessarily a problem. But when money is steered toward that organization and increasing amounts at all levels, then I would want to know who’s making sure that this is operating properly.”
A spokeswoman for Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s office emailed a statement to Spotlight on Maryland that emphasized the federal single audits of Civic Works do not assess how state funding is spent. Maryland state agencies, she wrote, have their own individual oversight mechanisms in place.
“The Moore-Miller administration is committed to ensuring every dollar of taxpayer funding is awarded fairly, spent responsibly, and accountable to the public,” Moore’s spokeswoman wrote.
Several agencies within the Maryland government provided written statements to Spotlight on Maryland detailing various individual oversight policies for programs they fund at Civic Works. The Maryland agencies stated that no action has been taken in response to findings in Civic Works’ federal single audits.
$1 lease in Baltimore
Civic Works operates at Clifton Mansion, the former estate of philanthropist Johns Hopkins. The nonprofit has a lease agreement with Baltimore City that allows them to pay just $1 per year to use, maintain and renovate the property.
Additionally, Civic Works has received $13.5 million in taxpayer dollars through the Baltimore City government since August 2022, according to a government database. This included $4.5 million in taxpayer dollars from the Baltimore City Health Department to Civic Works from 2022 to 2024, described in the database as being for “Coronavirus.”
A spokesperson for Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott’s office emphasized that the city “employs best practices for grant administration, signing grant agreements that ensure transparency and accountability.”
The spokesperson noted that recent federal audits of Civic Works “identified no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in internal controls over federal programs, finding that Civic Works complied with all requirements that could have a material effect on its major federal programs.”
The mayor’s office did not respond to additional questions on audit concerns at Civic Works regarding financial reporting and scheduled expenditures for federal awards.
Civic Works is partnered with Baltimore City Public Schools to operate the “Reach! Partnership School,” which prepares students for college and careers. The 2025 federal single audits revealed the organization received $9.7 million from Baltimore City Public Schools that year. Reach is incorporated separately but included in the audits because Civic Works manages the organization.
A spokeswoman for City Schools said they consider federal audit findings as part of their oversight of Civic Works.
“We will continue to monitor the Operator’s progress to confirm that the audit issues have been appropriately resolved,” the spokeswoman emailed Spotlight on Maryland. “City Schools will also continue to review audits and other financial documents to ensure the organization is on track and making progress consistent with its Corrective Action plan and regular contractual requirements.”
Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by The Baltimore Sun, FOX45 News and WJLA in Washington, D.C. Have a news tip? Call 410-467-4670 or emailSpotlightOnMaryland@sbgtv.com. Contact Patrick Hauf atpjhauf@sbgtv.comand @PatrickHauf.
Apple Towson Town Center employees received an endorsement from Maryland Governor Wes Moore in their fight against Apple over the company’s decision to close its first US unionized store. Here are the details.
Apple faces new pressure over Towson store closure
A couple of months ago, Apple announced that its Towson Town Center would close its doors for good on June 20, alongside two other stores located in commercial centers in California and Connecticut.
The Apple Towson Town Center workers have been represented by the IAM Union since 2022, after becoming the first Apple retail store in the US to unionize.
Soon after the announcement, IAM Union decried Apple’s handling of the store closure. While the company says that the union agreement only requires transfers within 50 miles of the Towson store, with severance offered otherwise, the IAM Union argues that Apple is denying them the broader relocation options available to employees at non-union stores.
Since then, in addition to the pushback from the IAM Union, Apple has also received letters from Maryland lawmakers and, just yesterday, from40 members of Congress, asking it to reconsider closing the store or to provide Towson employees with the same transfer opportunities offered to workers at non-union stores.
Today, Maryland Governor Wes Moore chimed in, manifesting his support for the Towson workers.
Although Governor Moore stopped short of accusing Apple of union-busting practices, as members of Congress did in their letter to the company, he did explicitly call on Apple to give Towson workers the same transfer rights and opportunities afforded to other employees.
Here’s Governor Moore’s statement:
“The Towson Town Center Apple Store has been a retail anchor for the region since 2022. (…) It’s provided good-paying jobs, increased economic activity, and been an important localized service hub for the region. As the first unionized Apple retail store in the country and a strong-performing location, its workers proved that economic growth and workers’ rights go hand-in-hand. Now, the rug is being pulled out from underneath them. These Marylanders deserve the same transfer rights and opportunities afforded to other Apple employees, and we stand with them.”
The IAM Union praised Governor Moore’s support and called on the company to act before the June 20 deadline.
Apple, for its part, remains silent on the issue, ever since it provided the following statement to 9to5Mac when the IAM Union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board on April 28:
We strongly disagree with the claims made, and we will continue to abide by the agreement that was negotiated and agreed with the union. We look forward to presenting all of the facts to the NLRB.
As of right now, the Apple Towson Town Center’s page says the store will close on June 20 at 8:00 p.m.
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Republican candidate Mariela Roca is making another play for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District. On The Final 5 with Jim Lokay, she talks about her campaign ahead of the June primary, and the lessons she’s learned on the campaign trail.
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