State officials and consumer advocates are questioning the transparency and priorities of BGE’s multi-billion dollar natural gas pipeline modernization effort.
Known as Operation Pipeline, BGE’s work to replace Maryland’s aging legacy gas system ramped up in 2013 when lawmakers enacted the Strategic Infrastructure Development and Enhancement Plan (STRIDE).
The law allows gas utilities to recover the estimated costs of projects through a customer surcharge, but a new analysis from Maryland PIRG Foundation — a statewide consumer advocate group — argues BGE is exploiting ratepayers amid the ongoing project.
The “Fast-Tracked and Flawed” analysis, co-written by PIRG Senior Advisor Emily Scarr, claims BGE is not prioritizing safety when selecting projects to update natural gas infrastructure.
“BGE is charging customers billions under the banner of safety for a program that may actually be delaying the work to replace or repair the riskiest cast iron pipes,” Scarr said at a press event Wednesday.
She argues converting BGE’s gas system from low to medium pressure is driving project selection decisions more than identifying at-risk pipes.
“This approach could impose a long-term financial burden on rate payers without adequately demonstrating public safety benefits. It could even be delaying the work to repair or replacing aging cast iron pipes,” Scarr said.
But BGE Spokesperson Nick Alexopulos says the vast majority of low pressure systems are cast iron and refutes the claim that BGE is mismanaging repair and replacement priorities.
“That's abject nonsense. We have focused on replacing the riskiest infrastructure for decades. In 2025, 85 percent of our planned operation pipeline work was abandoning cast iron main. That number was conveniently left out of the report they issued,” Alexopulos said.
Scarr also argues that BGE is proceeding with “wholesale replacement” of pipes without considering cost-effective alternatives, ultimately leading to higher utility costs.
“The more a utility spends on new pipes and equipment, the more it can profit. This is a powerful incentive for wasteful capital spending, and we rely on our legislators and utility regulators to keep a careful watch,” she said.
Alexopulos refutes this claim as well, noting BGE has been carrying out alternatives, like pipe lining, for the past 20 years.
But lawmakers are not backing down, particularly Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen, who’s calling for a freeze of all utility rate hikes, including BGE’s planned 2026 rate increase.
“This report confirms that BGE does not prioritize replacing hazardous, unsafe pipes that pose safety risks. Instead, they're focused on upgrading their entire system, pipe by pipe,” Cohen said, calling the utility an “unregulated monopoly.” “The bottom line is that BGE prioritizes profit for their investors over safety and affordability for our residents.”
David Lapp with the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel — the state’s consumer advocacy office — says BGE is a third of the way through the replacement program, but customers have only paid about 3 percent of the costs to complete Operation Pipeline.
“BGE will spend about $3 billion more over the next 20 years, at a total customer cost of about $19 billion over time, and that spending will drive BGE rates much higher than they already are,” he said.
Lapp says this winter, an average BGE customer will pay more than twice — $80 more — than what Washington Gas customers are paying in the southern part of the state.
When asked about the skyrocketing rates, Alexopulos says it comes down to balancing affordability with improving infrastructure safety and reliability, noting BGE is the oldest utility company in the country.
“We have a gas main on our system that was installed in the 1860s. Cast iron is crumbling, it is a liability, it leaks at 100 times the rate of the replacement materials — It all needs to go,” he said.
State leaders and advocates are calling on the Public Service Commission (PSC) — the statewide utility regulator — to require transparency from BGE in documenting its methodology for its project selection and risk evaluation.
Scarr says she wishes the PSC would have acted sooner in reviewing the latest iteration of Operation Pipeline, but the commission still has time to review BGE’s plans and make sure they are in compliance with the law.
