Maryland
Commentary: Time for Maryland utility customers to stop subsidizing fossil fuels – Maryland Matters
By David Lapp
The writer is Maryland People’s Counsel.
“A subsidy is a benefit given to an individual, business, or institution, usually by the government.” — Investopedia.com
Even as it searches high and low for funds to support ambitious climate goals, the state is forcing gas utility customers to subsidize billions of dollars in fossil fuel infrastructure spending.
In competitive markets, companies don’t spend billions of dollars on long-lived assets without believing they have a product customers will want for a long time. Absent strong future demand, the investment won’t be profitable and could lead to investor losses and, ultimately, bankruptcy.
But those competitive forces that discipline corporate spending are absent for gas utilities. By law, utilities are insulated from competition, and their investors face few of the risks that competitive businesses face. That insulation is compounded by the counterintuitive way gas utilities enhance their profits — by spending more customer dollars on infrastructure, usually gas pipes. Utilities recover those costs, plus profit, regardless of how much demand there is for the gas that those pipes deliver.
This way of profiting means that Maryland’s gas utilities have an interest in disregarding — and obscuring — the mounting customer costs of spending billions for gas infrastructure despite widely accepted projections of substantial declines in gas consumption due to electric technologies and climate policy.
Consider, for example, what is evident from proceedings before the Public Service Commission (PSC). Utilities report only the short-term impacts of their spending on customer costs. And they fail to consider that projected declines in gas consumption diminish the need for infrastructure spending — or whether lower-cost alternatives to such spending are available.
Our office’s reports provide the only data showing how this massive spending on gas infrastructure has impacted and will impact utility customers. No Maryland gas utility — nor the PSC — has provided its own data or projections.
Quite the opposite, in fact. The utilities are willfully blinding themselves to the future:
- Washington Gas, the state’s second-largest gas utility, admitted in its recent rate case that it has “[n]o analyses, documents, or studies. . . forecasting the expected gas usage of its customers over the next 30 years” — even though it expects customers to pay for its infrastructure investments for much longer, up to 80 years.
- Columbia Gas, Maryland’s third largest gas utility, recently said it is “not aware of any heat pumps currently available that would require no back-up heating system” — a hard-to-swallow statement given the availability of such heat pumps in Maryland and across the country. (This author has one that performed quite well without backup during our recent cold blast.)
- Baltimore Gas and Electric, Maryland’s largest gas utility, is spending more than $1.25 million on gas infrastructure every single day. BGE acknowledges that in the future its distribution infrastructure won’t be used for fossil gas but instead to “deliver something different.” No one — including BGE — can explain how alternatives like landfill gas or hydrogen can be cost-effectively substituted for fossil gas at scale.
No business operating in a competitive environment would risk spending vast sums on long-term infrastructure to deliver an undetermined “something different” or without considering alternatives and competition from other technologies.
Utilities can ignore these realities — but only if government regulation is lax. As the Maryland Supreme Court has observed, for utility monopolies, “extensive government control” over prices, services, and operations “takes the place of competition and furnishes the regulation which competition cannot give.”
The government’s failure to “control” gas utilities by replicating the forces of competition means that captive customers are paying for infrastructure that would never be built in a competitive market. This amounts to a massive state subsidy for fossil fuel infrastructure being foisted on state utility customers.
It’s past time for the General Assembly to address these gas utility subsidies. Right or wrong, the PSC recently declared that it has “limited” options to curb the gas utility spending on gas infrastructure “[u]ntil the General Assembly enacts changes to the STRIDE statute” — referring to the 2013 law that declares as its purpose the acceleration of gas infrastructure replacement work. The gas utilities agree, with BGE recently telling the PSC that it “should not move forward until the Maryland General Assembly makes future state policy decisions related to natural gas service.”
It is imperative that the legislature act now. Each day results in additional spending and locks repayment plus utility profits into rates for many decades to come.
An initial, modest step is to enact The Ratepayer Protection Act (SB 548/HB 731), legislation that would modify STRIDE in line with a Maryland Commission on Climate Change recommendation approved by an overwhelming vote, with broad and universal support, including from cabinet agencies, and opposition only from fossil fuel interests.
Sponsored by Sen. Charles E. Sydnor III (D-Baltimore County) and Del. Elizabeth Embry (D-Baltimore City), the bill requires gas companies to prioritize public safety and perform evaluations of cost-effective alternatives as a condition of obtaining profitable accelerated cost recovery for pipe replacement. These are modest and logical requirements that should already be part of the law.
Regulation of public utility monopolies is not self-executing; the state — the PSC and the General Assembly — must exercise its “extensive control” over utility monopolies. Otherwise, the utilities’ private interests overtake the public interest. Continued State inaction on gas infrastructure spending means continued windfalls for gas utility investors — windfalls from subsidies paid by captive utility customers. Utility customers deserve better.
Senate Bill 548 will be heard Thursday at 1 p.m. in the Committee on Education, Energy and the Environment. House Bill 731 will be heard on Feb. 29 at 1 p.m. in the Economic Matters Committee.
The state said the five recently traveled together to “a location in the U.S. experiencing an active measles outbreak.”
Maryland health officials confirmed five more measles cases, all in Carroll County.
“These individuals recently traveled together to a location in the U.S. experiencing an active measles outbreak,” the state Department of Health said in a release.
The agency said others may have been exposed on the afternoon of July 13 in the emergency department waiting room at Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster.
Another measles case recently prompted warnings from health officials in Maryland, Virginia and the District. On June 17, a Maryland resident traveled through Dulles International Airport and visited a D.C. urgent care clinic.
Measles is highly contagious. It can spread through the air through coughs, breathing, and sneezes. Early symptoms can include fevers of over 101 degrees, coughs, runny noses, watery eyes and face or body rashes.
It can take up to 21 days after exposure for the first symptoms to appear, and those who are not fully vaccinated or otherwise immune to measles are especially vulnerable.
The five new measles cases in Maryland bring the state’s year-to-date total to nine. The state health department confirmed three cases in 2025, and one in each of the previous two years.
“All Marylanders should review potential exposure times, watch for symptoms, and confirm they are up to date on their measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccinations,” the health department said.
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Baltimore may be under an extreme heat alert, but residents can dream about autumn, as tickets are now on sale for the Maryland Fall Home & Garden + Craft Show returning to the Maryland State Fairgrounds in October.
This three-day celebration of home and garden takes place from Friday, Oct. 16 through Sunday, Oct. 18 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. Expect hundreds of exhibitors, local makers, home improvement experts, family-friendly experiences and celebrity guests. The show offers everyone the chance to explore the very latest in home improvement, landscaping, outdoor living and decor, the chance to take part in hands-on experiences, and do some holiday shopping all under one roof.
This year’s show will have more than 300 exhibitors, including more than 100 crafters from around Maryland in the Makers Market. There will be unique exhibits, stage presentations and a special appearance by Chase Morrill, Ashley Morrill-Eldridge and Ryan Eldridge from Magnolia Network’s hit series “Maine Cabin Masters.” The three will have two Main Stage appearances, one on Friday, Oct. 16 at 4 p.m. and the second on Saturday, Oct. 17 at 12 p.m.
“As temperatures start to drop and the holiday season comes into view, the Maryland Fall Home & Garden + Craft Show is a place to gather ideas, meet local experts and get inspired before the busy season begins,” said Dave Paul, show manager, in a statement. “Whether attendees are planning a home project, looking for outdoor living ideas or getting a head start on holiday shopping, the show brings together resources and experiences for every kind of homeowner, maker and DIY enthusiast.”
In addition to the Makers Market and stars of “Maine Cabin Masters”, the Maryland Fall Home & Garden + Craft Show will have a petting zoo, a Kids Market where attendees can shop from local children, and much more.
Tickets are available online and at the door. Prices are as follows:
Online:
- Adults: $8
- Senior Citizens (60+): $6
- Children (ages 6-12): $4
- 4-Pack Online: $30 for four tickets, valid for one admission each and one day only
At the door:
- Adults: $10
- Senior Citizens (60+): $8
- Children (ages 6-12): $4
- Friday & Saturday: $4 after 4 p.m. at the door only
Special Offers:
- Active and retired military personnel, veterans, firefighters and police officers receive free admission all weekend, along with one guest, with valid ID at the box office.
- Attendees who show a CharmPass app, Light RailLink ticket or eligible transit pass at the box office receive free admission any day of the show. One admission is available per pass.
The Maryland State Fairgrounds is located at 2200 York Road in Lutherville-Timonium.
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Maryland
Maryland police arrest alleged bank robber wielding stolen cat: ‘Tried to use her as an accessory’
Law enforcement agencies are accustomed to dealing with cat burglars – but now a Maryland police department is saying it grappled with a cat-wielding bank robber.
The Prince George’s county police department said its officers arrested a man suspected of stealing a cat and then taking the animal with him to a PNC bank branch in the local community of Beltsville to rob the establishment on Monday morning.
“The cat was returned” after the suspect was arrested, the police department said in a statement to the Guardian on Tuesday. The agency said no injuries were reported, and it declined to name the suspect or release additional details, saying the case – bound for a spot in the annals of bizarre reported US crimes – remained under investigation.
Nonetheless, a social media post from rescue shelter Beltsville Community Cats provided more information.
A Beltsville Community Cats Facebook page post on Monday identified the cat at the center of the alleged botched caper as Magnolia, a three-and-a-half-month-old tuxedo kitten. The shelter recounted how the suspect first snatched Magnolia from her “adoption habitat” at Beltsville’s Pet Supplies Plus store, took her across the parking lot to a PNC branch, and “tried to use her as an accessory in [an] attempted robbery”.
“He asked the bank manager to hold the kitten while he wrote a note, then handed the note to a teller demanding all the cash,” the post continued. “Thankfully, the robbery was unsuccessful, the suspect was arrested, and Magnolia was found safe and sound in the bank manager’s office, where the two had bonded over their shared ordeal.”
Pet Supplies Plus store employees told the NBC affiliate in nearby Washington DC that Magnolia’s cat napper had come in daily for about two weeks and focused on the kitten each time.
Finally, on Monday, he managed to use a key to open a cat adoption area and whisked Magnolia away, store employees said to the outlet, WRC.
Store manager Aaron Kurkowski told WRC that Magnolia’s thief “came in and saw none of my team was nearby the front – and he just went right to her and ran right on out”.
According to WRC, Stephanie Stullich of Beltsville Community Cats then received a call from a pet store employee who alerted her to Magnolia’s plight.
That prompted Stullich to run over to the store, where she said to WRC that she “immediately saw all of these police cars and … thought, ‘Wow, that’s a heck of a response for a stolen cat’.”
“But then I realized they all were going down to the bank,” Stullich recalled to WRC. “They came back out a few minutes later and said, ‘Yes, there is a cat inside the bank.’”
Two days before her catnapping, Magnolia was the subject of a Beltsville Community Cats Facebook post inviting people to see her at Pet Supplies Plus and consider adopting her.
Magnolia as of Monday was still waiting to be adopted, Beltsville Community Cats said in its post detailing the bank robbery.
The non-profit organization offered members of the public the opportunity to apply to adopt Magnolia by emailing rescue@beltsvillecats.net.
Beltsville Community Cats’ post also joked that Magnolia’s “brief ‘life of crime’ is behind her” – except for undoubtedly “stealing” hearts, treats, toys and cuddles wherever her forever home may be.
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