Baltimore Council passes resolution, calls for rejection of BGE's proposed rate hike plan

BALTIMORE - A resolution proposed by Baltimore City Councilman Zeke to oppose BGE's rate hike was passed by council members Monday.

The resolution, Cohen said, will be sent to the Public Service Commission, calling for consideration to reject the rate hike plan next month.

"We deserve better from BGE," Cohen said.  

Cohen claims these plans by BGE are unnecessary and costly to customers, while also arguing that the gas and electric company's plan would be bad for the environment.

"BGE is a public utility and it is a private company that has a monopoly on delivering gas and electric services," Cohen said.

Cohen, in a press conference Monday morning, called out BGE and its plans to raise rates in a multi-year plan as well as the replacement and upgrades to gas regulators throughout Baltimore.

"While Baltimore does have some of the oldest natural gas pipes in the country, BGE could repair parts of the system rather than replace all of them," Cohen said.

BGE responded to that claim by citing the 2013 Stride Law which shows the Maryland General Assembly's encouragement of replacing aging gas infrastructure.

"The federal government agrees. The upgraded infrastructure is less prone to leaks, a crucial step to fight climate change," BGE said in a statement.

Cohen also maintains that BGE's multi-year rate hike plan would raise gas delivery rates by 61 percent over the next three years, which, he says, will be harmful and costly to city customers.

However, BGE says those numbers are inaccurate and that customers' bills would only increase by an average of $10.36.

"If BGE's multi-year plan is approved in full by the public service commission, there will be a five-percent average annual increase in residential bills for combination electric and gas customers in each of the three years." 

"And while BGE contests that number, Baltimore residents should not subsidize BGE's massive gas line build-out," Cohen said.

BGE contests that doing a multi-year rate hike to invest in aging infrastructure is a transparent process approved by the Maryland Public Service Commission back in 2019.

BGE told WJZ that its plan to upgrade the gas infrastructure is in lockstep with the state's decarbonization goals as well as their hybrid plan to do so which, if approved, they say would save customers $14 billion.