Montgomery County, Maryland, is making significant progress to clean up its act when it comes to climate change.
The county’s 2025 Clean Action Plan report shows the county has begun work in 80 of the 84 actions called for in the plan.
Among the accomplishments cited by County Executive Marc Elrich was that the county planted 5,000 trees, offered free transit service on its Ride On buses as a way to cut emissions, and adopted regulations designed to boost building energy efficiency.
The county’s report shows that public schools were a big part of the effort to make buildings more energy efficient. Twelve schools earned the state’s Maryland Green Schools designation and 113 are certified green schools.
Homeowners were also involved in boosting the county’s climate change strategy, 315 households installed solar infrastructure.
In the next fiscal year, Elrich said Tuesday, the county is looking to switch up to 25% of its Ride On fleet to emission-free vehicles, expand Bus Rapid Transit service and expand the infrastructure for electric vehicles.
The push comes as the county works toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2027, and 100% by 2035.
One of the challenges to reaching those goals is the expected loss of federal support for funding greenhouse gas reduction efforts according to the county’s report. In the last year, the county was awarded more than $58 million in grants tied to climate change.
The county has also added a third Mesonet weather station, a solar-powered and automated network that samples and transmits weather data, to its system. The Mesonet weather stations provide up-to-date information designed to give emergency management officials added lead time during severe weather events and can aid in the study of climate change.
The Maryland Mesonet mission, as described by the University of Maryland and Maryland Department of Emergency Management Partnership, is aimed at operating a network of weather-monitoring and data collection systems across the state. Montgomery County’s latest Mesonet weather station was added to the grounds of the National Capital Trolley Museum in Cloverly.
The first Mesonet tower in the network was installed in 2023.
