The Baltimore County Council can’t reduce your BGE bill. But the Council wants the utility to know their high prices are hurting county residents.
“I’ve been hearing from seniors, I have been hearing from people on fixed incomes, and they are hurting and they don’t know what they’re going to do,” said Councilman Julian Jones, a Democrat.
A resolution, which was passed unanimously Monday by the County Council, asks state leaders to “take every action available to protect everyday Marylanders and business owners from surging BGE bills.”
It also calls on the state to come up with an affordable plan to make the transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy.
“It’s imperative that the Public Service Commission and the state legislature make plans for the future so that we don’t continue to have these high energy rates,” said Councilman Wade Kach, a Republican.
Unlike rollicking hearings the Baltimore City Council and the Maryland General Assembly have held when they have called BGE officials on the carpet to defend themselves, the Council Council had a brief chat amongst themselves at a meeting last week, then passed the resolution Monday night following another short discussion.
A BGE spokesman said the company is aware that some customers are struggling to pay their bills, but said it was an unusually cold winter, not higher rates, that was the primary culprit.
“We are now seeing a decrease in energy consumption driven by milder weather, with February bills averaging 26% lower compared to January bills,” said BGE Spokesman Nick Alexopulos in a statement.
Alexopulos said that while customers’ electric bills were 28% higher last month than in February of 2024, 18% of that increase was due to people using more energy.
In a March 12 hearing before a Maryland General Assembly committee, state legislators were skeptical of that explanation.
Del. Brian Crosby, a Democrat who represents St. Mary’s County, told the Baltimore Banner that he had hoped for an honest conversation at that hearing, but instead BGE and other utilities fingered the cold weather for increased rates.
Crosby said it’s “very clear who the utilities work for, and it’s not the ratepayers of Maryland.”
County Councilman Todd Crandell, a Republican, said Monday he is not expecting the Democratically-controlled General Assembly to do anything about the high cost of utility bills.
“The Maryland General Assembly is bought and paid for and will do nothing to help our constituents because they never have in decades,” Crandell said.
