Maryland lawmakers grilled local electricity and natural gas providers Wednesday in Annapolis — with one state senator saying a response from a Baltimore Gas and Electric Company representative amounted to “extortion.”

Representatives for Exelon’s BGE, Pepco and Delmarva, as well as Potomac Edison and Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, faced the legislative committees that oversee energy issues.

As delegates covered recent rate increases, the multiyear rate plan and natural gas pipeline improvement projects, the messaging from the utility companies stayed the same: The coldest winter since 2014, plus more expensive supply, are the main reasons people have been hit with higher bills.

That answer, which the utility companies have given across meetings with federal, state and local elected officials amid a public outcry, did not appear to satisfy lawmakers.

“Energy is no good to anyone if they can’t afford it,” said state Sen. Benjamin Brooks, a Baltimore County Democrat.

Gas and electric bills are largely driven by supply rates and delivery rates — and are both regulated by the Maryland Public Service Commission, or PSC, which had representatives at Wednesday’s hearing.

Factors such as the cold winter and the cost of natural gas contribute to higher supply charges.

On the delivery side, capital improvements to the electrical grid, gas pipelines and more drive up customer bills. Some lawmakers and consumer advocates have questioned whether BGE is spending too much on those projects.

BGE’s gas delivery rates have more than tripled since 2010, rising from $0.26 per therm to $0.85 in 2024, exceeding the rate of inflation, according to a report last June from the Maryland Office of the People’s Counsel.

Charles Washington, BGE’s vice president of governmental and external affairs, argued that without the capital improvements it is undertaking, delivery of electricity and gas could become shaky.

“We’re willing to have the conversation like, do we value being in the top quartile of reliability, or should we change our level of investment so that we’re at a different level? Right?” Washington said. “I mean, I think that it is a fair question to ask. How do we get together as a state and decide what level of investments are appropriate for the goals?”

That prompted state Sen. Mary Washington, a Baltimore Democrat, to respond: “That sounds a little bit like extortion and not a conversation.”

“Frankly, we always get that response when we’re trying to earnestly recognize that you’re a company and you need to make profits,” she continued.

The legislative committees that oversee energy issues joined a growing chorus of lawmakers and consumer advocates alarmed by rapidly rising utility bills.

Earlier in the General Assembly’s 2025 session, Del. Elizabeth Embry, a Baltimore Democrat, introduced legislation to tackle BGE’s rate hikes on natural gas. She, Attorney General Anthony Brown and others held a news conference Feb. 4 to promote that bill and call attention to the rate hikes.

Also last month, the Baltimore City Council and city residents grilled BGE about rate increases, and three Baltimore-area congressional representatives wrote to BGE and the Public Service Commission, which authorizes the rates of utility companies including BGE, to express concern.

The congressional representatives asked the commission to cease the multiyear rate plan and rescind the rate increase that went into effect on Jan. 1.

At Wednesday’s legislative meeting, PSC chair Frederick Hoover said the panel “does not have the ability to rescind a rate increase that we’ve already granted.”

“But if they are, in fact, over-earning, we actually do have the ability to bring the company in and reduce the rate,” Hoover continued.

Despite Hoover’s answer, Sen. Malcolm Augustine, a Prince George’s County Democrat, pushed him on whether the state should continue using the multiyear rate plan program that enables utility companies to recoup the cost of projects from their customers.

Hoover said he was not leading the commission when BGE’s most recent multiyear rate plan was approved, but that it is working to determine whether the current process for rate increases will be permanent.

“We want to do this in a manner that can’t cause too much disruption in how the companies are operating,” Hoover said.

Del. Brian Crosby, a Democrat representing St. Mary’s County, said he’d hoped for an honest conversation with utility companies but instead heard them blame the weather for high prices.

Cosby, who is vice chair of the House Economic Matters Committee, said after the meeting it was “very clear who the utilities work for, and it’s not the ratepayers of Maryland.”

Going forward, he anticipates reworking the joint leadership package and creating measures that hold utility companies accountable, such as making them justify their expenditures before setting rates.

“People are struggling,” Crosby said, adding that he’s heard stories of people choosing between paying an electricity bill and paying for prescriptions.

Utility companies have “pushed every single solitary boundary to raise rates on people,” he said.

“What are we going to do?” he asked. “Have kids doing homework under candlelight, Thomas Jefferson style?”

Baltimore Banner reporter Brenda Wintrode contributed to this story.