Activist Clara Vondrich speaking in downtown Baltimore on Thursday about the need to move away from natural gas, as other advocates stand behind her. Photo by Elijah Pittman.
For the past few years, a consumer watchdog has urged state leaders to rethink policies that may prolong the use of natural gas in the state. An array of advocacy groups have amplified that call.
On Thursday, that consumer advocate and dozens of other stakeholders crowded into the hearing room of the Maryland Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, to make their case.
Officially, the proceeding in downtown Baltimore was a hearing by the PSC to consider a request from the Office of People’s Counsel for a broader commission examination of the future of natural gas use in the state.
But nothing is ever simple or quick when it comes to utility regulation. The hearing request was made a year and a half ago and Thursday’s proceeding lasted seven hours.
David Lapp, who heads the Office of People’s Counsel (OPC), the state agency that represents consumers’ interests on utility matters, reiterated his argument that a 2013 law that lets gas utilities recover the cost of pipeline infrastructure from ratepayers is going to prolong the state’s reliance on fossil fuels. It runs counter to a more recent state law that seeks to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, he said, and comes at a time when cleaner alternatives are being developed and utilized more cheaply than many fossil fuels.
“It’s bewildering to an outsider to say, ‘Why is this happening?'” Lapp told the PSC commissioners. “There’s a disconnect between technology, climate policies and what’s going on.”
The program known as STRIDE — the Strategic Infrastructure Development and Enhancement Plan — provides incentives to utilities for natural gas pipeline repair and replacement, which they can recover through surcharges on consumers’ monthly gas bills. Lapp and other advocates have asserted that there aren’t just climate implications with STRIDE, but that less affluent ratepayers will be held responsible for paying for the gas pipeline improvements as wealthier Marylanders electrify their homes.
Gas utilities aren’t anxious for the PSC to undertake a study of their industry and its incentives. They argue that only the General Assembly can set policy, and they maintain that while they support the state’s climate goals, natural gas needs to be part of the fuel mix for the foreseeable future to guarantee service reliability, affordability and energy security.
“We’re really uniquely situated to help this decarbonization effort,” said Lauren Urbanek, senior manager for decarbonization strategies at Baltimore Gas & Electric, Maryland’s largest utility.
Jim Steffes, a senior vice president at Washington Gas, said the PSC might want to take a broader look at Maryland’s energy future and not just focus on gas.
“I would suggest that the better frame for this analysis is the future of energy,” he said.
Lapp and other advocacy groups seeking to limit the use of fossil fuels in the state note that while the legislature has so far refused to repeal STRIDE, lawmakers have already set climate policy and tasked state agencies like the PSC to implement it.
“The General Assembly has spoken” by passing the Climate Solutions Act in 2022, said Susan Miller, a senior attorney with Earth Justice. And she said lawmakers decreed in the legislation that “regulatory xagencies with expertise, like the PSC” will create a pathway for achieving the climate mandates.
Over the course of the seven hours, the four PSC commissioners — there is one vacancy — heard testimony not just from Lapp and the utilities, but from local officials, environmentalists, tenant advocates, community groups, public health experts, clergy, unions and national energy policy mavens.
One of the local officials, Somerset County Economic Development Director Danny Thompson, noted that his Eastern Shore jurisdiction has seen a surge of economic activity since the pandemic, and attributed part of the growth to the extension of a natural gas pipeline into the county just a year and a half ago.
“It’s critical that we have economic development and access to natural gas,” he said.
‘We want to make sure that we have a plan
Several of the advocacy groups rallied in downtown Baltimore before the hearing — including a couple activists dressed like characters from “The Flintstones” and holding signs that said “gas is past.”
“First we need to make sure that our gas spending is strategic and cost effective and data driven,” said Emily Scarr, the director of the Maryland PIRG Foundation. “We know Marylanders are already leaving the gas system for better, more efficient technology and we just want to make sure that we have a plan for a long term maintenance of our gas system.”
The STRIDE surcharges are expected to generate $20 billion in coming decades for the maintenance of the gas system, at a time when the overall heating and energy system in Maryland moves away from gas. The advocates think that everyday Marylanders should have a say in how these funds are directed.
Clara Vondrich, the senior policy counsel for the nonprofit organization Public Citizen, explained that Maryland needs to be careful with how the $20 billion is going to be spent and used.
“We know that gas is not cleaner than coal, it’s not a bridge fuel, it’s not a transition fuel, this is a dirty toxic gas that’s harmful to health, to climate, and it’s expensive,” Vondrich said.
She said advocates are hoping that the “commission opens a formal docket on a future of gas proceeding.”
Even after seven hours, the PSC hearing was not complete. Commissioners had yet to hear from their own staff analysts, and from representatives of the Maryland Energy Administration, another agency that is charged with implementing the state climate plan. They’ll be asked to come in at a later date.
Although several witnesses urged the PSC to move with speed, and grant OPC’s request for a wide-ranging review of natural gas — Lapp even quoted the Bob Dylan lyric, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows” — there is no set timetable for the commission to act, and Frederick Hoover, the PSC chair, suggested there could be more proceedings to come.
“My view is, this is not a one-day deal,” he said. “This is going to be continued over a series of meetings and hearings.”
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