Maryland Lawmakers Override Climate, Environmental Bill Vetoes

Meeting this week in special session, Maryland lawmakers passed again a trio of climate and environmental bills that Gov. Wes Moore had vetoed after the 2025 General Assembly.

House and Senate members voted overwhelmingly Dec. 16 to override Moore’s vetoes of legislation requiring studies of the cost to Maryland of climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions and of the economic, energy and environmental impacts of data center development in the state.

By a similarly wide margin, they also bucked the governor to set up an office tasked with planning to meet the state’s energy needs.

Moore, a Democrat, had cited the state’s budget crunch as reasons for vetoing all three measures while implying that legislatively mandated studies are “a drag on state government.”  His rejections disappointed and even angered climate and environmental advocates, who lobbied the Democrat-dominated legislature to override him.

The environmental impacts and energy demands of data centers and the related issue of soaring electricity costs have lately become hot-button topics in Maryland.

A few days ahead of the special session, the governor relented on the climate costs study and announced he had agreed to fund it. But lawmakers went ahead with the override, as Moore had only provided half the $500,000 funding called for in the bill. Advocates say the study is a needed precursor to suing fossil fuel companies to help cover the state’s costs of mitigating and adapting to climate change.

“In the end,’’ said Kim Coble, executive director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, “we’re very happy with the fact we’re moving forward looking for revenue sources for climate impacts, looking at the impacts [of data centers] and designing an energy plan for Maryland’s future.”