This is another example that the "free market" is not the best option for all situations.

The state of MD, with all its $$ needs to be funding public genertated electricity. Some will say that government cannot encroach on the private market place. But here there is no ability for a fully free market answer. Even when smaller renewable energy supply start to take a larger portion of the industry, there will be a regional grid and public lands which take the electricity to the consumer. Add to this the current thought that private vehicles will be shift from fossil fuel to electric. That adds a lot to be at the whim of the profiteers.

In the 1930s the federal government pumped huge sums of money in providing electric lines to the rural areas of the country, though many of those areas are now suburban sprawl. So its not like the state or federal government have not been involved and stepping in to fill the void that the private sector does not want to fill.