EmPOWERing Maryland: Estimating the Economic Impacts of Energy Efficiency Investments on Maryland’s Economy

The Maryland State Legislature is currently considering legislation that would extend the EmPOWER Maryland energy efficiency program. The first phase of EmPOWER was highly successful, with Maryland utilities reducing per-capita electricity consumption by 10% and saving consumers over $4 billion. The current legislation would set targets for each utility to achieve annual incremental savings of 2% of sales by 2020. In this paper, we estimate the economic impacts on the state of Maryland of meeting those targets. We find that extending EmPOWER would create 68,000 net new jobs, increase state gross domestic product by $3.75 billion, and save Maryland homes and businesses nearly $12 billion.

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Local and Community Initiatives