https://dailycaller.com/2025/04/06/maryland-senate-president-ci-renewables-bill-ferguson/
Democratic Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson is backing legislation to strip trash incinerations from the state’s renewable energy subsidy program — a policy shift that could directly benefit the solar company that now employs him.
Lawmakers are quietly folding the proposal into a broader energy package set for a vote before the legislature adjourns Monday. If it passes, millions in taxpayer-funded renewable energy credits could be redirected from waste-to-energy plants to solar firms like CI Renewables, where Ferguson took a job last year. (RELATED: Green Energy Groups Cling To Tax Credits As GOP Lawmakers Look To End Biden-Era Climate Subsidies)
Ferguson, of Baltimore, announced in June that he had accepted the job with CI Renewables, a company that finances and develops large-scale solar projects in Maryland and along the East Coast. He retained his leadership position in the state Senate, where he now holds near-total control over which legislation advances.
Ferguson told the Daily Caller News Foundation his employment did not violate any ethical rules, and that “most all of [Maryland lawmakers] have outside jobs. So just like we have a doctor in the Senate who works on healthcare issues — the theory of a part-time legislature is that you bring expertise into the long legislative process.”
“Before I even considered this position with CI [Renewables], I spoke to our ethics council,” Ferguson continued. “I made sure we had clear lines of where problems could arise in the case that there was something in Maryland, and I disclosed it all through all of our public filings. We’ll continue to always disclose it — it’s something that’s really important … can’t be in a way that’s personally beneficial, and we maintain very strict ethics rules here in Maryland.”
The full package, called the Next Generation Energy Act, is expected to be taken up in the coming days — likely before the session gavels out Monday. Lawmakers are advancing the proposal as part of a larger legislative vehicle, allowing it to move forward despite missing the usual procedural deadline.
In October, Ferguson posted on X that he would introduce a bill to remove trash incinerators from Maryland’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Environmental groups who have long sought such a move argue waste-burning plants should not qualify for clean energy subsidies.
Please see my statement regarding the future of waste incinerators in Maryland’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard Program: pic.twitter.com/QFExTAxyqG
— Bill Ferguson (@SenBillFerg) October 18, 2024
