Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday defended his administration’s efforts to ease historically high gas and energy prices during an event at Salisbury University, saying his team is working to reduce household costs while blaming the White House and the war in Iran for broader price spikes.

“You know what would be really helpful? Let’s stop fighting foreign wars,” Moore said at the campus, where he and others spoke about a newly renovated building opening this fall.

Asked about high gas prices, Moore said prices in Maryland had risen by about $1.60 over the past eight or nine weeks.

“Since the Strait of Hormuz has been closed, we’ve seen how gas prices all across this country, and frankly, all across the world, have continued to skyrocket,” Moore said. “We’re now fighting a war that none of us understand — but that we’re all paying for.”

Moore said the state is looking for ways to make the burden of higher gas and energy prices “just a little bit easier.” He cited middle-class tax cuts passed in 2025 and more than $300 million in energy-related relief and investment for Marylanders, including help with utility bills.

Republicans pushed back, saying Moore’s statements were short-sighted and misleading.

Del. Barry Beauchamp, a Republican who represents parts of Wicomico County, said Moore “failed to mention” the fact that his administration raised taxes on gas.

He said Republicans tried to cut the gas tax for a month to help Maryland families, “but he certainly had no part of that.”

“So, you can’t blame everything on the federal government,” Beauchamp said. “You can’t blame the president when your own policies that you’ve set up over the years (are) causing the majority of the high cost of all energy in Maryland.”

Moore faced a pointed question from the audience about whether a campaign website had incorrectly claimed that the governor had lowered energy bills. A blurb on Moore’s reelection website says, “Governor Moore is lowering energy costs for Maryland families while investing in a cleaner, more reliable energy future.”Despite those claims, many Marylanders face historically high energy bills.

“Are you being misleading, and are you leaving ratepayers behind?” Moore was asked.

The governor replied that energy prices have skyrocketed over the past 18 months.

“What we have done in terms of providing now $300 million of support for Maryland families and energy relief is a real thing — that is a fact-check thing,” Moore said.

He added that the state was asking wealthy Marylanders to “pay a little bit more, so we don’t have to lay off firefighters or police officers.”

Moore also said Maryland was the first state to ban dynamic and surveillance pricing in grocery stores. But he said tariffs and “unnecessary foreign wars” are making that work more difficult.

“Those are things that I, and every governor in this country, wish we could do something about, but we know that’s uniquely the White House’s responsibility,” Moore said.

U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, the state’s lone Republican federal lawmaker, also weighed in. In a statement emailed to The Baltimore Sun, he said that Democrats are responsible for high energy prices “due to their short-sighted overemphasis on expensive renewable energy, like offshore wind, over lower cost clean coal and natural gas electricity generation.”

“It is no coincidence that electricity costs are much lower in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, neighboring states that generate electricity from coal and gas, and sell us large amounts of our electricity,” Harris wrote. “And if Governor Moore is so concerned over high gasoline prices, why didn’t he support Republican calls for a state gas tax moratorium? Because, as the author of the largest tax increase in Maryland history last year, he is always ‘tax and spend.'”

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