Transition Finance Weekly - 4/24/2025

Maryland’s Mixed Bag, Big Blue-Green Alliance Win, Renewables Face Headwinds in NY

1. Maryland’s Mixed Energy Package - and Climate Economic Outlook

Charged takeaways at the end of Maryland’s legislative session

• Maryland just closed out its 2025 legislative session with a sweeping energy package that’s a mixed bag for clean energy in the state. For context, Maryland has a goal to cut 60% of emissions by 2031 and achieve a net zero economy by 2045.

• The bad: the legislature sent Governor Wes Moore a bill that could fast-track up to 10 “dispatchable” energy projects, which will likely mean new expedited natural gas plants that some clean energy advocates are calling a “giant step backwards.” The bill also requires that zero-emissions projects get the fast track at a ratio of 4-to-1.

• The good: the Next Generation Energy Act authorizes 1.75 GW of battery storage, ends subsidies for waste-to-energy, requires utilities to justify new gas pipelines, and bars them from billing customers for lobbying and private jets. Other bills will speed up community solar and limit local governments’ ability to block solar projects.

• The urgency: Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman released a report this week on the costs of climate change to Marylanders. The report found massive risks to the economy, including workforce disruptions, damage to infrastructure, and revenue loss for the state, which could be in part mitigated by a “preventative approach.” Lierman also instituted an advisory board to help shepherd the state’s economy through increasingly dramatic climate-driven fiscal impacts.

Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman: “The costs of inaction are severe, encompassing economic disruption, worsening health disparities, and long-term, irreversible environmental damage. Addressing the effects of climate change requires a range of smart investments, from mitigation projects that include efforts to reduce planet warming greenhouse gas emissions.”

2. Green Hushing Meets Government Backlash

How corporations are navigating an anti-renewables political climate

• Earlier this month, developer Equinor started construction of Empire Wind 1, an 810-megawatt offshore wind project just 20 miles from NYC, the first offshore wind project to start since the Trump administration launched its attack on offshore wind. But there was no public announcement beyond an email to boat captains warning about ongoing construction.

• Keeping a low public profile (aka “green hushing”) is one of many tactics developers are using to navigate a hostile political environment that’s explicitly anti-offshore wind. This stands in stark contrast to the ribbon-cuttings and press releases of the past, and the pomp and circumstance companies like Equinor use for publicity overseas.

• Despite its best efforts, the Interior Department still ordered Equinor to halt construction late last week, alleging rushed permitting during the Biden era. This pause threatens thousands of union jobs and jeopardizes a key piece of New York’s clean energy strategy, and has the Governor and state officials in defense mode.

• The fate of this offshore wind project underscores the Trump administration’s intentional focus on disrupting and derailing renewable energy projects, regardless of the costs and backlash.

Vincent Alvarez, president of the NYC Central Labor Council: “The reckless and overreaching move to halt construction that is already underway on Empire Wind threatens thousands of good union jobs and jeopardizes the progress New York has made toward cleaner, more affordable energy.”

3. Hyundai’s $5.8B Low-Carbon Steel Plant

A decarbonization bright spot in Louisiana

• Hyundai Steel is investing $5.8 billion in a new steel mill in Louisiana that will produce steel plates for the auto industry (and stimulate the local economy). What’s so notable about this investment is that Hyundai will be using Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) technology that’s standard overseas but will be a first for U.S. steel manufacturing. Unlike traditional blast furnaces that rely on metallurgical coal, EAFs use electricity to melt recycled steel, slashing emissions by 75–85%.

• Lower emissions are a big deal for the steel sector industry that’s responsible for up to 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This project is a big step towards decarbonizing heavy industry in the U.S. by offering a model for greener domestic manufacturing.

4. Federal Uncertainty Delays $1.3B Virginia Battery Plant

Grant clawbacks are creating intentional instability.

• Microporous’s $1.3 billion lithium-ion battery separator plant in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, is facing construction delays from federal funding uncertainty. The plant is set to be a boon for the local economy, bringing more than 2,000 jobs to the region.

• For now, the delay is temporary, but more federal uncertainty could further impede the Microporous project and many others like it long-term. The Department of Energy is reportedly working on a new “hit list” of renewable energy projects receiving federal grants. Under this new scheme, projects that haven’t spent at least 45% of their awarded funds would be reviewed, and the Microporous battery plant is one of them.

• Sixteen projects representing roughly $7.9 billion in investments have already been cancelled or scaled back since Trump launched his broad attack against clean energy projects that’s bad for business and local economies—and it could get worse.

Zach Coleman, Kelsey Tamborrino, Catherine Morehouse, and Ben Lefebvre for E&E News: “The efforts underway at DOE are the latest Trump challenge of federal spending laws and the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. Canceling projects that have already received congressionally appropriated spending or contracts with the government would raise thorny legal questions and potentially jeopardize private sector trust in federal funding.”

5. Chicago Teachers Win Climate Commitments in Landmark Contract

The Blue-Green alliance at work

• The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) just made history by securing major climate provisions in their latest contract negotiations for healthier schools and clean energy job pathways for students. The contract, now approved by 97% of CTU members, includes:

  • 200+ new filtered water fountains to remove lead from drinking water;

  • Expanded air quality monitoring inside schools;

  • Solar panels at 30 schools and building electrification upgrades like heat pumps;

  • More composting and meals cooked from scratch in cafeterias;

  • Partnerships with trade unions to open clean energy career pathways for students.

• Negotiations initially stalled on these issues until the city and union collaborated on an EPA grant application for electric school buses that opened the door for other items. Also critical to this win was broad support from teachers, students, and other community groups.

• The deal still awaits final approval from the Chicago Board of Education, but it proves again that labor is a powerful driver for local climate action with benefits to be shared by schools, students, and communities.

Lauren Bianchi, former teacher and green schools organizer for CTU: “This contract is setting the floor of what we hope we can accomplish. ​It shows we can win on climate, even despite Trump.”

SPOTLIGHT: New Analysis from Energy Innovation

• A new meta-analysis from Energy Innovation found that repealing the tech-neutral clean energy tax credits—§45Y (for electricity production) and §48E (for investment)—could raise household energy bills by $6 billion annually over the next five years, and up to $25 billion annually by 2040.

• These credits lower consumer costs and expand access to clean energy, including for local governments, rural cooperatives, and nonprofits via the “direct pay” provision, facilitating more equitable energy infrastructure across the country.