About 20 Baltimore residents — some who are part of the class action lawsuit against the energy supplier — accused BGE of putting profits over safety at a city council hearing Wednesday. The hot topic — whether gas pressure regulators should be inside or outside homes.
Janet Blair, who lives in a high traffic area, said she’s concerned about paying a higher insurance premium if someone crashed into the external regulator that sits outside her property.
“From my front porch I can see two places where there was an accident,” said Blair.
“A car ran into the steps. The other one, was an attempted robbery and a car ran into the building. So if these things are outside of the house, and once BGE puts them in, they automatically belong to me. I think that's absolutely wrong, especially if I have no say in what's going on. It's going to change my insurance. It's going to change me just sitting on my front porch.”
The “things” Blair referred to are external gas pressure regulators, which take the high pressure in a gas line and reduce it to the pressure required by your gas appliance.
Senior Project Manager, Kevin Nelson, testified at the hearing, and said external gas regulators are safer than internal ones. “If the regulator is indoors, the gas will go to an indoor space. If the regulator is outdoors, the gas will go to an outdoor space where it can safely dissipate,” he said.
Nelson added that external regulators provide easier access in case of an emergency like a gas leak or worse, a gas explosion.
But residents pushed back. Many claimed the external gas regulators are inappropriate for the dense urban environment.
Liz Bement, who lives across a bar in Upper Fells Point, said “there's lots of drunken vandalism that occurs along our sidewalks most every night.” However, she said she is more concerned about the possible genesis of a social media trend.
“A friend showed me how anyone walking by could unscrew the front cap on the regulator,” said Bement. “[They could] take a screwdriver and ratchet up the gas pressure. There are YouTube video videos that show you just how easy this is. We're one TikTok video away from a catastrophic trend in Baltimore.”
BGE representatives continued reiterating ways in which an external gas pressure regulator is safer. The energy supplier provided the following fact sheet:
Ervin McDaniel III, senior manager in external affairs, added the company is installing bollards or safety posts around external regulators to reduce damage from crashes. However, The Brew reports the utility is currently suing a vendor who improperly placed the security barriers two years ago.
Councilwoman Danielle McCray, who chairs the Health, Technology & Environment Committee, said there will be more hearings on the matter. On Aug. 15, the Public Service Commission, will also hold a hearing after receiving “numerous individual complaints” on the location of gas regulators.
You can read the whole BGE statement below:
