ANNAPOLIS — When the General Assembly returns in January, energy bills headed for the Senate will first pass through a subcommittee led by a Southern Maryland senator — at a time when power supply, data centers and nuclear generation have become local fights in Calvert and Charles counties.
Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) named Sen. Kevin M. Harris (D-Prince George’s, Charles and Calvert) chair of the Energy Subcommittee of the Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee, one of a slate of leadership and committee changes Ferguson announced Oct. 29 ahead of the 2027 session, according to a summary from the Maryland Association of Counties.
The subcommittee is where energy legislation gets its closest look before the full committee votes. For Southern Maryland, the timing matters: Calvert County is home to Maryland’s only nuclear station, the two-reactor Calvert Cliffs plant in Lusby, and county leaders on both sides of the Patuxent are wrestling with how much of the region’s land and power should go to energy-hungry data centers. The announcement did not say what priorities Harris plans to bring to the post.
A reshuffled committee
Harris’ new post comes as the full committee changes hands. Sen. Brian J. Feldman (D-Montgomery), who has chaired Education, Energy, and the Environment since 2023, becomes majority leader and the Senate’s first economic development chief, The Daily Record reported. Sen. Dawn Gile (D-Anne Arundel) will chair the committee, with Sen. Benjamin T. Brooks Sr. (D-Baltimore County) as vice chair.
Ferguson tied Feldman’s new role to the Senate’s dealings with the House, the governor’s office and private employers as the state faces a projected $3 billion budget shortfall. Feldman will sit ex officio on all four standing policy committees and chair a reconstituted Rules and Operations Committee.
Other changes include Sen. Antonio Hayes (D-Baltimore City) taking over the Finance Committee, which also gains primary jurisdiction over artificial intelligence bills, and Sen. Cheryl Kagan (D-Montgomery) chairing the committee’s elections subcommittee while serving as the Senate’s liaison for national legislative affairs.
Energy issues close to home
The energy debates Harris’ panel will hear have already landed in Southern Maryland. Constellation Energy has explored doubling nuclear output at Calvert Cliffs, and this month Calvert officials said the county was not consulted on a Constellation-Amazon power deal tied to the plant.
Calvert is also weighing a text amendment that would bar data centers in every zoning district, and its planning commission has moved to undo heavy-industrial zoning on 1,352 acres in Lusby. In Charles County, Commissioner Gilbert “BJ” Bowling III said a proposed data center ban lacked the votes and shifted his focus to power supply, while Commissioner Amanda Stewart has flagged a possible opening for data centers in St. Charles.
State law sets the backdrop. The Next Generation Energy Act of 2025 made encouraging nuclear power development state policy, directed state agencies to seek cost-sharing partners for new nuclear generation and created a faster permitting track for “dispatchable” power projects, with a Public Service Commission decision expected in roughly nine to 10 months, MACo reported in its review of the law. Follow-up bills on those programs, utility costs and new generation would typically go through the energy subcommittee.
Less than a year in the Senate
Harris has served in the Senate since Dec. 9, 2025. Gov. Wes Moore appointed him to the District 27 seat after Sen. Michael A. Jackson resigned to become acting superintendent of the Maryland State Police, the Chronicle reported at the time. The Democratic central committees of Prince George’s, Charles and Calvert counties jointly recommended him.
Before that, Harris represented District 27A in the House of Delegates starting in January 2023, serving on the Appropriations Committee and as House chair of the Joint Committee on Children, Youth, and Families, according to his Maryland Manual biography. In the Senate he already sits on the Education, Energy, and the Environment Committee and its energy and education subcommittees, and he chairs the Senate delegation for Charles, St. Mary’s and Calvert counties.
A Newark, New Jersey, native, Harris served in the U.S. Navy from 1999 to 2009, including four years with the White House Communications Agency, and later worked in network engineering and program management on Defense Department contracts. He is a member of the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland and the Southern Maryland Agricultural Development Commission.
On the ballot Tuesday
The leadership picks were announced days before the Nov. 3 general election, and every senator’s seat is on the ballot. Harris faces Republican Al Larsen in District 27, according to Ballotpedia.
In the Democratic primary, Harris defeated Jason T. Fowler, 10,927 votes to 5,619, or about 66% to 34%, in official State Board of Elections results. The county breakdown showed how different the district’s three parts can be:
County Harris Fowler Prince George’s 5,544 1,567 Charles 2,648 905 Calvert 2,735 3,147
Fowler, who filed for the seat after missing out on the appointment, carried the Calvert portion of the district. For more on the broader election picture, see the Chronicle’s look at why most General Assembly contests are not expected to be competitive.
The 2027 session opens in January, when the new committee leaders take up their posts and the energy subcommittee begins hearing bills. All other Senate leadership positions remain unchanged unless Ferguson announces more appointments.
