During 2026 Legislative Session, there are so many presentations, discussions and legislations related to energy, utility price, regulations. We are determined to fix the high utility cost issue facing our constitutes.
Hopefully the following presentations will help all to understand these issues better.
Brittany Baker Maryland Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
There is so much information to help us understand the high energy cost issue. Please read it.
Below is a clear, regulator-accurate breakdown of which parts of your Washington Gas bill are avoidable vs. unavoidable, and what actions (if any) actually reduce each charge.
You pay these no matter what supplier you choose and even if gas prices fall.
~$34–36 of your $47.98 bill is unavoidable
No supplier switch, negotiation, or timing can remove these.
Can be reduced only by using less gas
These scale with usage:
How to reduce them:
⚠️ But note:
Even cutting usage 30% usually lowers the bill only ~15–20%.
These are the only charges you can change via supplier choice
📌 Most people save little or nothing long-term.
| Charge Type | Avoidable? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | ❌ No | None |
| STRIDE | ❌ No | None |
| System charge | ❌ No | None |
| EmPower MD | ❌ No | None |
| Taxes | ❌ No | None |
| Gas supply (PGC) | ✅ Yes | Switch supplier |
| All charges | ⚠️ Partially | Use less gas |
Washington Gas is essentially a fixed-cost utility disguised as a usage bill.
If you want next:
Just say the word.
Recently there are many complaints across the east coast (13 states falling under PJM, 67 million customers) about the high utility price. MD Senator Katie Fry Hester organized a meeting to talk about PJM price models and data center issue. I am attaching different price models shared from her office.
More slides are saved here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16s2nfhPeaIx6mQxThpO52nLtZ1lTrnC3?usp=drive_link
A different approach:
I asked a question during the virtual meeting. Could we have a rate-payer centered model? I support having data centers. However, they need to share the cost of building infrastructures.
So the price model starts where considering the price increase will be limited by 3% every year, traverse back to see how much every other user need to pay to increase electricity capacity?
PJM has not done such analysis, or probably they would not. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should demand to do a study like that.
Another issue always puzzles me: we, as rate-payers, pay energy companies to design, build, finance and run our energy portfolio, what’s the exact power do we have to influence the decision of a private company? Is there anything wrong with this model for affordable energies?
