Lawmakers grill energy companies over high utility bills
Repjjjfrom utility companies providing services in Maryland. From Left: John Dodge (Washington Gas), Tim Troxell (FirstEnergy), Tim Dennison, (Southern Maryland Energy Cooperative), Charles Washington (Baltimore Gas and Electric), and Valencia McClure (Pepco). (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Maryland Matters)
Amid soaring energy costs for Marylanders, lawmakers interrogated representatives of the state's utility companies Wednesday to get to the bottom of why so many of their constituents have seen their energy bills skyrocket over the past couple months.
At a joint briefing of the House Economic Matters Committee and the Senate Environment, Education and Energy Committee, company representatives claimed that energy usage went up recently due to the frigid winter temperatures, resulting in more costly bills — but lawmakers believe there is more to the story.
'What we need is some frankness and information so that we can all collectively stop the pain that is occurring in our communities, where they are not able to pay the bill,' said Sen. Mary Washington (D-Baltimore City and Baltimore County).
The four-hour briefing comes as House and Senate committees work out the details of an energy package pushed by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County), in an effort to bring down rising energy costs while ensuring the energy grid continues to function efficiently.
Leaders' bills seek to transform Maryland energy landscape — but questions remain
Their package includes measures to build a new gas-fired power plant and create a new office within the Maryland Public Service Commission to help with forecasting and modeling energy needs, among other measures.
Representatives from Pepco, BGE, the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO), and Washington Gas were called before the committees to discuss rising energy costs. Nearly every company attributed the rising bill costs to the winter weather in Maryland this year, which had been notably colder than in recent years.
'The main driver behind this has been … extremely cold temperature,' Charles Washington, vice president of of Baltimore Gas and Electric, told the committees.
'It was one of the coldest winters we've had in 10 years. Our average customer usage has been up almost 20% above our previous figures,' Washington said. 'Basically customers have been using more product.'
Lawmakers did not appear to be accepting that: At one point, more than a dozen lawmakers' microphones were flashing to indicate that they had questions for the energy companies on the costs of energy.
Economic Matters Chair C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) wasn't satisfied with the weather answer.
'The problems I had when we were explaining the winter months and how we had a very cold winter — I don't know if you thought maybe this was some kind of relief … My concern is the summer's coming, and what's to stop us from being brought back where we were?' he asked.
Washington clarified that he didn't mean to imply that there's relief happening in the summertime, because he thinks 'usage will be up again.'
'Winter, for us, is usually when people experience the highest bills, because they rely on heat pumps for heating their homes,' Washington said. 'What we try to stress to our customer members is to try to conserve electricity by turning down their air conditioner. It's somewhat a little bit more palatable to do that in the summertime versus whatever you're trying to keep in the winter.'
Del. Brian M. Crosby (D-St. Mary's) also doubted the weather justification.
'I appreciate you telling me the winter was cold about two-and-a-half hours ago, but that really doesn't deal with why energy costs are going through the roof,' Crosby said.
Many of the Democratic lawmakers expressed concerns with how the energy rate increases were determined by the Maryland Public Service Commission, and worried that the energy companies were increasing profits at the expense of the consumers.
Del. Christopher T. Adams (R-Middle Shore) said he believed that the increased costs primarily came from the weather, though acknowledged other factors likely contributed.
'Would we be here today if January was balmy and maybe an average year?,' Adams said. 'I'm doubting we would be here. So, I think a lot of this is volumetric, in relationship to the problems that our constituents are having.'
In a conversation with reporters Tuesday, President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore County) said that the briefing by utility officials was not intended to 'create scapegoats and bogeymen' of the energy companies.
'We are here to get information and to understand what we can do to help Marylanders who are feeling a lot of pressure and pain from utility bills,' Ferguson said Tuesday. 'We are looking for short-term options to increase relief for ratepayers and for people who are paying … bills that are too high.'
Get ready for a dizzying debate on energy policy
But Senate Minority Leader Stephen Hershey (R-Upper Shore), believes the state's environmental policies were to blame for ratepayers' costly electric bills, and Democrats were looking for someone else to blame.
'It was very apparent from the tone of the questioning that the Democrat leaders are desperate to blame someone else and deflect the conversation away from their policy decisions that are driving up energy costs,' Hershey said in a prepared statement.
'In fact, customer rates are up because Democrats could not say no to the environmental advocates' … forced closures of reliable fossil fuel generation plants, essentially re-regulated the supply market that removed competition and customer choice, and pushed an overall movement towards electrification through the Climate Solutions Now Act,' Hershey's statememt said. 'Each one of these actions contributes to increased rates that Marylanders pay for electricity.'
– Maryland Matters reporter Bryan P. Sears contributed to this report.
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