BEPS Deadlines in DC and Maryland: Owner's Guide

BEPS deadlines in DC and Maryland are now operating realities, not future policy talk. If you own or manage commercial buildings in the District, anywhere in Maryland, or specifically in Montgomery County, there is a decent chance at least one building in your portfolio is already inside a compliance cycle with a date attached — and in DC, the first compliance period ends December 31, 2026, which makes this the year the math gets unavoidable.

BEPS stands for Building Energy Performance Standards: laws that set a minimum energy performance level for existing buildings and require underperformers to improve by a deadline or pay. This is a different animal from benchmarking, which only requires reporting your numbers. BEPS grades the numbers, and the DMV happens to host three separate programs — DC’s under the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act, Maryland’s under the Climate Solutions Now Act, and Montgomery County’s own county-level BEPS — each with its own thresholds, cycles, and paperwork.

One caveat up front, because this is compliance content: the summaries below reflect our best understanding of the programs, and regulators continue to refine regulations, deadlines, and thresholds. Verify current requirements against the official sources before making decisions — the DC Department of Energy and Environment BEPS page and the Maryland Department of the Environment BEPS page are the authorities, along with Montgomery County DEP for the county program.

What is a building energy performance standard?

A BEPS is a legally enforceable minimum energy or emissions performance level for existing buildings, with a multi-year compliance cycle to meet it and financial consequences for falling short. Unlike benchmarking laws, which require disclosure, a BEPS requires improvement: buildings below the standard must cut energy use or emissions by the end of the cycle.

The policy logic is local and concrete. Buildings are the dominant emissions source in dense jurisdictions, so cities and states regulate them the way they regulate everything else that emits.

Buildings account for roughly 70 percent of the District of Columbia’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the DC Department of Energy and Environment’s Clean Energy DC plan (DOEE).

The mechanics differ by program, but the pattern is shared: a square-footage threshold defines covered buildings, benchmarking data (ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager) determines who is above or below the standard, buildings below the line choose a compliance pathway, and the threshold ratchets down over successive cycles to pull in smaller buildings.

Who is covered by DC BEPS, and what are the deadlines?

DC BEPS currently covers privately owned buildings of 50,000 square feet and up (and District-owned buildings at 10,000), with the threshold dropping to 25,000 square feet for the cycle beginning in 2027 and to 10,000 square feet in 2033. Standards are set by property type — pegged to the ENERGY STAR median for that type — and buildings scoring below their standard must complete a compliance pathway within the roughly five-year compliance period.

The dates that matter, per DOEE’s published program structure:

• First compliance period: 2021 through December 31, 2026. Covered buildings that scored below the standard in the 2021 evaluation must have completed their pathway — typically a ~20% energy use reduction under the performance pathway, or the prescriptive/alternative equivalents — by the end of 2026.
• Second cycle: begins January 2027, with standards re-evaluated and coverage expanding to buildings of 25,000 square feet and up. Owners of buildings in the 25,000–50,000 range should treat 2026 as their baseline-shaping year, since current benchmarking data feeds the next evaluation.
• Annual benchmarking continues throughout — it’s the data layer the standards are applied to, filed through Portfolio Manager each spring.

DC’s pathways give real flexibility: the performance pathway (measured energy reduction), the standard/prescriptive pathway (defined actions like audits and implemented measures), and case-by-case alternative compliance proposals for buildings with unusual circumstances such as long-term vacancy or planned demolition. The wrong move is choosing none of them and discovering the penalty schedule instead.

Who is covered by Maryland BEPS, and what are the deadlines?

Maryland’s BEPS, created by the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2022, covers buildings of 35,000 square feet and larger statewide (excluding parking area), with limited exemptions such as certain manufacturing, agricultural, and school buildings. The program is administered by the Maryland Department of the Environment, and its structure is emissions-based rather than ENERGY STAR-score-based: covered buildings must reduce net direct greenhouse gas emissions on a trajectory to net-zero direct emissions by 2040, with an interim standard in 2030.

The working timeline as MDE has structured it:

• Benchmarking and data reporting began in 2025, with covered buildings reporting energy use and emissions data to MDE (initial deadlines have seen extensions and phase-ins as the regulations settled — check MDE for the current reporting date for this year).
• Interim performance standards take effect in 2030, requiring meaningful reductions in direct (on-site fossil fuel) emissions against baseline.
• Net-zero direct emissions by 2040 is the endpoint, which in practice means a long-run electrification plan for gas-fired heating, water heating, and other combustion equipment in covered buildings.

Because Maryland’s standard targets direct emissions, the strategic implication is different from DC’s: efficiency alone helps, but the 2040 endpoint is about replacing combustion equipment at end of life with electric alternatives. Owners with boilers and gas RTUs in covered Maryland buildings should be aligning equipment replacement cycles with that trajectory now, since a boiler installed in 2028 will still be mid-life when the standards bite. MDE’s regulations also contemplate alternative compliance payment mechanisms; rates and details have been through revisions, so confirm current numbers with MDE.

What about Montgomery County’s BEPS?

Montgomery County runs its own, earlier-moving BEPS layered on top of the state program, covering buildings down to 25,000 square feet — a lower threshold than Maryland’s statewide 35,000. Enacted as Bill 16-21 in 2022, the county program is administered by the Department of Environmental Protection and phases in by building group, with county and larger buildings reporting first, and sets interim and final site-EUI-based performance standards by property type, with final standards landing for most cohorts in the 2030s.

If you own in Bethesda, Silver Spring, Rockville, or Gaithersburg, the operational takeaway is that you may owe both the county and the state: coverage, metrics (the county uses energy performance targets; the state targets direct emissions), and deadlines differ. The county has published guidance on how the programs interact, and buildings between 25,000 and 35,000 square feet in the county are covered locally even though they fall below the state threshold. Confirm your building group and first deadlines on the county DEP BEPS page linked above.

What are the penalties for missing BEPS deadlines?

Real money, structured as alternative compliance payments or fines scaled to how far short the building falls. In DC, buildings that fail to meet the standard face alternative compliance payments that can reach up to $10 per square foot depending on the shortfall — on a 100,000-square-foot building, that is a worst-case seven-figure exposure, far exceeding the cost of the efficiency work that would have achieved compliance. Maryland’s framework similarly contemplates fees for noncompliance and alternative compliance payment rates set by regulation, and Montgomery County’s program carries its own enforcement.

The quieter penalties matter too: noncompliant buildings show up in public benchmarking disclosures, lender ESG screens increasingly ask about BEPS status and compliance plans, and a building carrying unresolved BEPS exposure is a harder sale and a harder refinance. Compliance status is becoming part of the asset’s paper, the same way an open code violation is.

What should owners do this year?

Establish coverage, know your number, and get a pathway on paper — in that order, this quarter rather than this cycle’s final year. For DC buildings in the first compliance period, 2026 is the final year; work not already underway needs to be scoped immediately, and buildings that cannot physically comply in time should be talking to DOEE about alternative compliance rather than defaulting into penalties.

The sequence we run for owners:

1. Coverage check. List every building against the three programs’ thresholds: 50,000 (DC now, 25,000 from 2027), 35,000 (Maryland), 25,000 (Montgomery County). Include buildings that will be pulled in by the next threshold drop.
2. Data audit. Confirm Portfolio Manager is accurate — floor area, property type, all meters. Misclassified property type or missing tenant meters can put you on the wrong side of a standard erroneously, in either direction.
3. Gap analysis. Compare each covered building’s score or emissions against its applicable standard and quantify the distance.
4. Pathway selection and project scoping. For buildings below the line, an energy audit and retro-commissioning scope typically anchors the plan — the same measures with the strongest standalone ROI are usually the compliance measures. For Maryland buildings, overlay equipment replacement timing against the 2030/2040 emissions trajectory.
5. Calendar and ownership. Filing dates, evaluation dates, and cycle deadlines go on a compliance calendar with a named owner, alongside your other regulatory obligations.

This is the core of our energy management practice for DMV portfolios: benchmarking hygiene, gap analysis, and the audit-to-implementation work that turns a BEPS deadline into a funded project plan instead of a penalty. And once more for the record: regulations move — verify current thresholds, dates, and payment rates on the DOEE and MDE pages linked above before you commit budget.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between benchmarking and BEPS?

Benchmarking requires you to measure and report your building’s energy use, typically through ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager; BEPS uses that data to enforce a minimum performance level. Benchmarking noncompliance is a paperwork fine, while BEPS noncompliance means your building underperformed the standard and owes either improvement or substantial alternative compliance payments.

My DC building is 30,000 square feet. Am I covered?

Not in the first compliance period, but you will be in the second cycle beginning in 2027, when DC’s threshold drops from 50,000 to 25,000 square feet. Your current benchmarking data shapes how you enter that cycle, so improvements made now both reduce operating costs and improve your standing when the evaluation comes. Verify the current cycle rules with DOEE.

Does Maryland BEPS apply outside Montgomery County?

Yes — the state program under the Climate Solutions Now Act covers buildings of 35,000 square feet and up statewide, including Baltimore, Prince George’s County, and everywhere else, with limited exemptions. Montgomery County additionally runs its own program reaching down to 25,000 square feet, so county buildings can be subject to both. Check MDE and county DEP guidance for how the two interact.

Can I just pay the penalty instead of doing the work?

Usually that’s the worst-value option: DC’s alternative compliance payments can reach up to $10 per square foot, which generally exceeds the cost of the efficiency measures that would have achieved compliance — and after paying, you still own an underperforming building facing the next cycle. Formal alternative compliance proposals for genuinely constrained buildings (planned demolition, long-term vacancy) are a different, legitimate route negotiated with the regulator.

What compliance pathway should most buildings choose?

Most buildings below the standard do best on the performance pathway — a measured energy reduction over the cycle — because retro-commissioning, controls, and lighting work typically deliver the required percentage while cutting operating costs. Prescriptive pathways suit owners who want defined checklist certainty, and alternative compliance fits edge cases. Choose based on an energy audit, not a guess.