BGE’s exterior gas regulators pose danger, ruin facades, residents tell PSC

Residents of neighborhoods across Baltimore urged the state agency that oversees utilities on Tuesday to step in and stop Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.’s controversial practice of installing gas regulators on the facades of homes.

The public outcry against external regulator equipment in historic, urban neighborhoods has grown louder over the past few months. Dozens of residents signed on to a June class-action lawsuit in opposition; several homeowners were arrested after protesting BGE gas shut-offs in Federal Hill; and a city judge ordered a halt to external regulator installations without consent until Sept. 5. The Office of People’s Counsel, an advocate for utility customers, said in a July analysis that massive spending on gas infrastructure will burden consumers with excessive long-term costs .

On Tuesday, with more than 30 people signed up to testify before the Maryland Public Service Commission, residents and utility executives went head to head over a central disagreement — whether the controversial gas equipment enhances public safety or poses serious dangers. Over the first two hours, the commission, which regulates the state’s utilities, sharply questioned BGE representatives about the need for and safety of external gas regulators.

BGE is adding regulators as part of a project to replace aging natural gas pipes and equipment throughout the Baltimore region. The utility has said its work is being done for safety and reliability and that outdoor regulators are needed to maintain a safe level of pressure between the gas system and customer homes and appliances.

But residents and homeowners have pushed back, accusing the utility of abruptly shifting policy in the midst of the upgrades and no longer allowing regulators inside homes in some neighborhoods. Opponents complain that the bulky equipment damages facades, poses dangers to pedestrians and wayward vehicles, lowers property values and ruins historic streetscapes. Others denounced what they described as “strong arm” tactics by BGE to force homeowners to accept the equipment on rowhouse facades or risk losing gas service.

At the end of a daylong hearing on Tuesday, Commission Chair Frederick Hoover urged all parties to find a “middle path or compromise” over the next couple of weeks.

If that fails, he said, the commission intends to issue a new policy and guidance. The commission also asked BGE to refrain from installing regulators without customers’ consent.

“We intend on issuing directions in this matter, but we’re not going to make a ruling today,” said Hoover, adding that the PSC would issue an order at some point in the future.

In East Baltimore’s Milton-Montford neighborhood, where many elderly residents have owned their homes for decades, neighbors are concerned about exterior regulators on narrow sidewalks being susceptible to vandals, said Soretha Staten, vice president of the community association. She said cars that have crashed recently along East Madison Street have narrowly missed hitting gas equipment.

Residents who pushed back were told “if you don’t agree to get these regulators then we are going to shut off your gas,” Staten testified. “This was in the dead of winter. ... These are our properties. We bought these homes. We own these homes.”

“We didn’t have a choice,” she added. “We didn’t have a voice in doing this. When you live in Baltimore City, you’re always in some kind of fear of something happening.”

The regulators are one small piece of a larger project to replace aging and outmoded gas infrastructure, Daniel Hurson of BGE told commissioners Tuesday. Work is being done in response to and to avoid catastrophic incidents such as gas explosions that have occurred in the past in Maryland and elsewhere, he said.

David Ralph, BGE’s general counsel, disputed opponents’ assertions that external regulators are dangerous, saying both internal and external locations are safe but that external placements are safer. Outmoded low-pressure systems need to be replaced, not repaired, because of their age and increasing rates of failure, he said. Opponents and lay people have put forth “inaccurate and misleading statements” about gas pipeline operations, Ralph said.

External regulators are safer, he said, because, “In the event that internal equipment is damaged, gas can accumulate within the house and cause a catastrophic event. We don’t want damage to our equipment. But equipment can be replaced. What cannot be replaced is the loss of life and the loss of public trust.”

Plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit, including community association leaders, asked the commission Tuesday to require BGE to give homeowners a choice between indoor or outdoor regulators.

“This is the source of the anger ... the misinformation campaign, the bullying and bulldozing that BGE appears to have done really in every neighborhood, but in certain neighborhoods more acutely than others,” said Thiru Vignarajah, the attorney representing plaintiffs.

The plaintiff group also asked the PSC to stop the utility from terminating service for declining unwanted new gas equipment and to issue a finding that external regulators are more dangerous than internal regulators. Vignarajah submitted data from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration that he said showed more injuries and deaths occurred from incidents involving outside regulators compared with inside regulators.

Vignarajah argued that BGE has options other than converting to high pressure gas mains, such as repairing and maintaining the low pressure gas lines, replacing the low-pressure lines or shifting to electrification. By replacing, rather than repairing lines, BGE is able to pass along infrastructure costs to customers with rate increases or surcharges, Vignarajah said.

Liz Bement, a resident of Upper Fells Point, questioned why BGE seemingly had changed its position from 2020, when it said that some densely populated areas of Baltimore City were not appropriate for installation of external meters and regulators.

“What’s really behind BGE’s turnaround since they wrote this statement?” she said in her testimony. “Our homes certainly haven’t gained any additional outdoor space for gas regulators since then. In fact, many of our houses are located directly on narrow sidewalks that are public rights of way, and lots of accidents involving cars — and even buses — occur on those same narrow sidewalks as they crash into homes located there.”

In written comments, the Tuscany-Canterbury Neighborhood Association said residents are alarmed by “apparent inequality in how BGE has handled its installation process to date (external vs. internal) between poor and middle-class/wealthier neighborhoods and are deeply dismayed that BGE turned off gas service to a number of homes, particularly in poorer neighborhoods and neighborhoods where the majority of residents are people of color.”

Reporter Dillon Mullan contributed to this article.