The global climate movement recently experienced its biggest setbacks to date. The United States withdrew from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change — which America helped design — and relaxed emissions standards for cars and power plants. Meanwhile, Canada eliminated its consumer carbon tax, and the European Union is scaling back its emissions reductions goals.

You can’t open your favorite news site today without coming across a headline about energy. Prices are rising even as we all become more reliant on electricity than ever before. You’re probably using WiFi to read this article. Your phone might be plugged into a charger right now, or maybe even your car. The number of items plugged into the outlets in your home is likely higher today than it has ever been in your lifetime. When you search something on the internet, chances are it’s using AI, which is driving significant increases in demand for power.

PJM, the regional grid operator, warned it could set a winter electricity demand record this week as extreme cold grips Maryland and surrounding states, heightening concerns about temporary power outages. In a report released this week, the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) said electricity demand is elevated across PJM’s footprint, which spans 13 states and the District of Columbia, but conditions are most acute in the BGE service area. The region is considered transmission-constrained, making it harder to move power into the area during periods of peak use.

Transmission is needed to keep the lights on. More than that, transmission can help facilitate the addition of new supply, as it will increase the touchpoints for new resources to plug in to the system and also reduce the financial burdens of those developers who otherwise would have to pay for more substantial transmission upgrades so they can plug in.

Maryland relies heavily on neighboring states to generate up to 40% of its annual electricity needs. However, with rising demand for power and plans to attract energy-intensive industries, such as data centers and manufacturing to the state, Maryland needs new energy infrastructure. This means that the state will need to construct new resources to generate electricity (e.g., solar, wind, natural gas, nuclear) to replace the power plants that have retired in recent in years.

A large swath of the United States is facing a heightened risk of blackouts this summer, a perennial danger as electricity use soars and extreme weather tests the nation’s aging power grid, according to the regulatory authority that monitors the electricity system.

If America wants to fight climate change—or enjoy the benefits of a modern economy—it must get much better at building electricity transmission.

The nation’s already strained power grid is either at a turning point or poised to dash all those clean-power visions as it crumbles under the new stresses being placed on it.

Maryland ratepayers could save hundreds of dollars a year on their electric bills if the regional power grid operator could speed up approval of energy projects.

Analyses show that without proper upgrades, the deactivation of Brandon Shores would cause a severe voltage drop across seven PJM zones, leading to a widespread reliability risk not only in Maryland but in the surrounding zones including Northern Virginia, the District of Columbia, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Regular rolling blackouts could become a reality for Baltimore-area residents if a lack of energy supplied to the power grid remains unaddressed.