**MEDIA ADVISORY**
MONDAY, MAY 11 AT 11 A.M. ET: Advocates and Legislators to Call on Regional Grid Operator to Lower Consumer Energy Bills at Annual Meeting
A recent analysis found that if PJM were to improve its interconnection queue and allow more clean energy to connect to the grid it would save each of its customers $500 a year in reduced energy bills
BALTIMORE, MD – PJM Interconnection (PJM), the regional grid operator for Maryland and a dozen other states, is holding its annual conference at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront May 11 to 13. State lawmakers and advocates will hold a press conference on the sidewalk outside the hotel to call out PJM’s mismanagement of the grid, which has led directly to surging energy prices.
PJM’s policies are delaying lower-cost clean energy projects while keeping more expensive power sources on the system––contributing to higher electricity bills across the region. A recent analysis found that if PJM were to allow more clean energy to connect to the grid, it would save each of its customers $500 a year in reduced energy bills. Advocates will also share recent cost savings from clean energy in other regions, such as Massachusetts’ recent announcement that residents are saving $1.4 billion over the next 20 years with the completion of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project. Meanwhile, PJM is forcing ratepayers to pay coal plants just south of Baltimore hundreds of millions of dollars to stay open, when cleaner alternatives would be less expensive.
Speakers at the press conference will call on PJM to stop bailing out fossil fuel power plants and to instead lower energy bills by allowing more clean energy onto the grid.
WHAT:
Press conference of lawmakers and advocates calling out Maryland electricity grid operator PJM for raising electricity prices and stalling on connecting clean energy projects
WHO:
Maryland Senator Katie Fry Hester
Maryland Delegate Lorig Charkoudian
Pennsylvania Representative Danielle Otten
Maryland Senator Shelly Hettleman
New Jersey Assemblyman Dave Bailey, Jr.
Jamie DeMarco, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Rebecca Rehr, Maryland League of Conservation Voters
Laurel Peltier, Energy Advocates
WHEN:
Monday, May 11, 2026, at 11 a.m. ET
WHERE:
Outside the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, 700 Aliceanna Street, Baltimore, MD 21202, at the intersection of Aliceanna Street and the Inner Harbor waterfront promenade.
NOTE: Event will be livestreamed here
CONTACTS:
Jamie DeMarco, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, jamie@demarcoadvocacy.com, 443-845-5601
Rebecca Rehr, Maryland League of Conservation Voters, rrehr@mdlcv.org, 443-668-7467
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