A bill from Del. Elizabeth Embry (D-Baltimore City) wouldl rein in the STRIDE program, which advocates say hase been abused by utilities to do unnecessary infrastructure work and bill it back to ratepayers. (File photo by Danielle E. Gaines/Maruland Matters)
A day after he and other legislative leaders announced a package of bills to lower Marylanders’ electricity costs, Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) conceded Tuesday that the measures would provide very little short-term relief.
“There’s no one thing that’ll stop a $50-a-month increase … or a 40% decrease in prices,” Ferguson told reporters. “That policy just doesn’t exist.”
But Ferguson expressed optimism, as he did during a news conference with fellow lawmakers the previous day, that the package of bills, if enacted, would eventually overhaul Maryland’s energy landscape, increasing the amount of energy produced in Maryland, kick-starting the state’s clean energy economy, and eventually lowering ratepayers’ utility bills.
Ferguson on Tuesday also said he could see the legislature tinkering with other utility policies this session to save consumers money. The possibilities, he said, include tinkering with the EMPOWER energy efficiency and climate program, which helps homeowners, renters, and businesses save energy and money, and upgrading the STRIDE program, which incentivizes gas utilities to repair and replace pipelines and other infrastructure.
Adjusting the EMPOWER program, Ferguson said, “will have marginal impacts, several dollars per month, which, you know, everything adds up. And then we’re also looking through some potential changes to the STRIDE program, which has to do with transparency, for infrastructure, for the natural gas infrastructure, that we could potentially have some few dollars here and there monthly impacts.”
“So those are not incorporated in the bill as introduced, but we are looking to see if there are additional things that are immediate places,” Ferguson said.
Around the same time Ferguson was sharing thse observations with reporters in Annapolis Tuesday morning, a group of elected officials, consumer advocates and environmentalists were gathered in front of Baltimore City Hall to argue for state legislation that would scale back the STRIDE program — and, they argued, lower utility bills in the process.
The group included Attorney General Anthony Brown (D), Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen (D) and the House sponsor of the legislation, Del. Elizabeth Embry (D-Baltimore City), along with council members.
The STRIDE law was enacted a dozen years ago to expedite natural gas infrastructure maintenance and repair work around the state. The idea was to give the state’s natural gas utilities an incentive to repair and improve their infrastructure over a 30-year period — which in turn, proponents argued, would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The utilities would be allowed to charge ratepayers a monthly surcharge on their gas bills to help defray the cost of the ambitious work schedule.
But as utility bills have spiked in recent months, for a variety of reasons, critics of STRIDE have argued that gas companies are taking on work that may not be necessary, adding needless costs to consumers’ bills — especially as the state looks to move away from fossil fuels. Embry’s legislation, also sponsored by Sen. Mary Washington (D-Baltimore City), would restrict the type of infrastructure work STRIDE would pay for.
“It is a very commonsense, reasonable attempt to make the STRIDE Act accomplish what it was intended for, to create safety,” Embry said.
David Lapp, who heads the Office of People’s Counsel, a state agency that protects consumers’ interests on utility matters, called reforming STRIDE “single most important action Maryland can take to address the massive utility bills customers are facing today.” Lapp has frequently warned that as the 30-year program runs its course, poorer residents will bear the burden of paying for updated gas infrastructure, as wealthier property owners electrify their homes and commercial buildings.
Embry’s bill will be heard in the House Economic Matters Committee on Thursday afternoon, together with legislation to expand clean energy production in the state by Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Montgomery). A similar version of Embry’s bill ran aground in the legislature last year, but as utility prices rise, the STRIDE program is getting more scrutiny.
Meanwhile, the three energy bills that are part of the House and Senate leaders’ legislative package, had yet to appear in full on the General Assembly’s website as of Tuesday evening.