Despite facing a $761 million budget shortfall, Maryland Governor Wes Moore just announced a major down payment on the state’s sustainable future, according to Inside Climate News.

The governor is committing $90 million to help electrify low- and middle-income households, install EV charging in underserved communities, and purchase and lease electric school buses.

The majority of the funds, $50 million, will go toward electrifying hospitals, schools, multi-family housing, and other community buildings. Another $23 million is earmarked for EV charging infrastructure in disadvantaged areas. The final $17 million will help transition the state’s school buses to all-electric models.

While acknowledging that this investment alone won’t curb rising global temperatures, Gov. Moore emphasized the importance of ensuring the clean energy transition includes everyone. The strategic funding targets the transportation and building sectors, two of the largest sources of dirty pollution.

For everyday Marylanders, this means more opportunities to upgrade to affordable, clean energy solutions like heat pumps and electric appliances at home. Expanded charging access will make it easier to switch to money-saving electric vehicles. Plus, kids across the state will soon be breathing cleaner air on their tailpipe-pollution-free rides to school.

By focusing these investments on underserved populations, the initiative could lower monthly utility bills while improving indoor air quality and health outcomes in vulnerable communities. For example, one study showed electric stoves alone could prevent up to 12.7% of childhood asthma cases, as reported by the Washington Post.

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“This critical funding will accelerate Maryland’s efforts to electrify transportation and buildings so that we can meet our climate goals,” Maryland Department of the Environment secretary Serena McIlwain said in a statement quoted by Inside Climate News.

“I’m very clear about the fact that $90 million won’t solve our climate challenges in Maryland,” Gov. Moore noted, at a press conference reported on by ICN. “But today, we make an important down-payment on a more sustainable future. We are here to ensure that the clean energy transition brings everyone along, and not just some.”

ICN indicated that the funding is one step toward an estimated billion-dollar-per-year investment needed to achieve the state’s climate targets over the next decade. But it’s an encouraging start.

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