By Steve Crane | Editor-in-chief
"After six years of annual rate hikes and record-breaking profits, BGE has come forward not with solutions, but with more problems. Enough is enough. We're calling on the Public Service Commission to reject BGE's rate hike, and to lower BGE's already excessive profit rate." – Emily Scarr, a senior adviser with consumer advocacy group Maryland PIRG, about a proposed rate increase from Baltimore Gas and Electric.
We swear it's Wednesday, Aug. 12, even though the stories today could have been pulled from a February newsletter. But some issues refuse to go away.
Customers and advocates in Baltimore Tuesday called on the Public Service Commission to trim a rate hike request from Baltimore Gas & Electric, which had a record profit last year. But the utility says its request, which it says would add about $8 a month to the average resident's bill, is a bare-bones plan. Christine Condon has that story.
Howard County residents reacted swiftly to the news that a federal judge said the county has to let work resume on a planned Department of Homeland Security office in Elkridge, and they were not happy. The offices, which will include holding cells for immigrants, were blocked by the county in February after an uproar that led to emergency legislation, as Danielle J. Brown reports.
A new poll shows that Marylanders have finances on their minds, but aren't keen on higher taxes -- unless they're levied on someone else. Bryan P. Sears has that story. In the meantime, get caught up on the news below on this -- August, we swear -- hump day. Enjoy!
Angel Nuñez, a bishop at the Bilingual Christian Church in East Baltimore, speaks against Baltimore Gas & Electric rate hike request Tuesday. Nuñez said his church recently got a $3,000 BGE bill, at a time when parishioners are often asking for help with high costs. (Photo by Christine Condon/Maryland Matters)
By Christine Condon
Consumer advocates, environmental groups and workers’ unions are pushing back against the latest rate hike proposal from Baltimore Gas & Electric, arguing that it is unjustified, particularly after the Exelon utility earned a record-setting $578 million in profits last year.
BGE estimates that, if approved by Maryland regulators at the Public Service Commission, its proposal would raise customer bills by $8 per month. The request would increase the monopoly utility’s “return on equity” — essentially its guaranteed profit margin for capital investments — from 9.5% to 10.4%.
The distribution rates that BGE charges for electricity have increased at about twice the rate of inflation since 2010, according to data from the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, which represents ratepayers in rate proceedings before the PSC. BGE’s gas rates have increased three times more than the rate of inflation during that same timespan, according to the office.
But BGE has said its July request for a $156 million increase is based on “bare bones” spending that it must undertake in order to maintain the electric system, which serves about 1.3 million Marylanders.
A protester holds a sign voicing opposition to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Maryland. (File photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
By Danielle J. Brown
Howard County residents vowed to fight a federal immigration facility planned for an Elkridge office building, one day after a federal judge ordered the county could no longer block work on the project.
Monday's order by U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson ruled that the project developer, Genesis Strategic One LLC, faced irreparable harm if the county was allowed to continue blocking the project, which has pushed the company toward bankruptcy. He ordered the county to let work continue on the project while the case proceeds.
The ruling comes months after county officials revoked permits that had been granted to Genesis to convert an office building in Elkridge into a facility for federal immigration enforcement. The county approved the project in 2025, but reversed that decision in February. County Executive Calvin Ball and others said then that the permit was approved in error and did not allow time for public comment. County officials said the project -- to convert the building into offices for Department of Homeland Security employees that would include temporary holding cells and a shower for detainees -- failed to give notice and was impermissibly close to schools, parks and shopping centers.
IN OTHER NEWS
Marylanders fret about finances: A majority of Marylanders favor raising taxes on wealthy households over other options, including legalizing internet gaming or making changes to the state sales tax, according to a poll released Tuesday.
ICE in schools: After President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, more than a dozen states passed laws to keep ICE away from schools. But that didn't stop the arrest of parents in front of children at Commodore John Rodgers School in Baltimore.
Targeting mortgage money: Maryland is one of 10 states that sued the Trump administration over a rule preempting state laws that require mortgage lenders to pay interest on the money borrowers put into escrow for taxes and insurance.
MATTERS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Helping rural health: Dozens of projects from county health departments, healthcare systems and hospitals will share $80 million in new federal funding to improve access to healthcare in Maryland’s rural communities.
Unions in a state: Nearly eight in 10 state workers have considered quitting, and nearly 60% said they are working more than one job to make ends meet, in a first-ever survey of AFSCME members for its State of Our State Services report.
Childhood vaccines shift: President Donald Trump signed an executive order that aims to reshape guidance around childhood vaccines, saying federal programs should “support maximal parental choice over childhood vaccines.”
Thanks for reading Maryland Matters Memo. Did you know our weekend digest is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.