Maryland leaders bill the state as a pacesetter in green energy, offering renewable power projects millions of dollars in subsidies since 2004 that come from residents’ electricity bills.
But much of the money is going to projects projects that are far from clean. It supports paper mills, such as one in the Allegany County town of Luke, that burn a sludge called black liquor.
It also underwrites trash incineration at Wheelabrator Baltimore, whose massive smokestack by Interstate 95 is the city’s largest source of air pollution.
And while those facilities collect millions of dollars that could otherwise go to cleaner projects, such as a wind farm on Dan’s Mountain in Allegany, worried neighbors are stoking conflicts over wind turbines and solar panels in communities across the state.
A Maryland paper mill burns a polluting sludge called black liquor. The state calls it green energy.
The paper mill hulks over a bend in the Potomac River Valley, a castle of pale blue metal between steep green slopes. Clouds of steam billow from its towers. The Luke Mill, the largest employer in this tiny town, has powered the economy in this corner of Appalachia for generations, producing paper...
A trash incinerator in Southwest Baltimore is the city’s largest single source of air pollution. But a state law has nonetheless allowed it to collect roughly $10 million in subsidies over the past six years through a program intended to promote green energy. Few commuters who pass the imposing...
David Friend began scouting the former strip coal mine here 16 years ago, with visions that it could one day produce a different sort of energy. The developer persuaded landowners along the blustery ridge in Western Maryland to bless his plans for more than two dozen wind turbines that would tower...