Appellate court rules Public Service Commission should not have dismissed deceptive green marketing complaint against Washington Gas
BALTIMORE – A 2022 Public Service Commission decision unlawfully dismissed the Office of People’s Counsel’s complaint alleging that green marketing on Washington Gas’s customer bills deceptively promoted natural gas as “clean” energy to its customers, the Appellate Court of Maryland ruled on Wednesday.
The court ruled in a 2-1 decision that the Commission does not have “unfettered” discretion to dismiss a valid complaint without addressing its merits. “The Commission cannot dismiss a complaint simply because it is ‘not interested’ or does not want to address it,” the court said.
“Washington Gas customers need protection from deceptive green marketing and other violations of the public utility laws,” Maryland People’s Counsel David S. Lapp said. “The appellate court’s decision confirms the Commission’s obligation to entertain our complaints of unlawful conduct.”
OPC filed its complaint with the Commission in 2021, after a customer shared advertising on Washington Gas utility bills that promoted gas as “a smart decision for the environment and your wallet” and as “clean energy.” OPC argued that it is misleading and confusing to customers to describe fossil gas as “clean” and that, for most residential customers, buying new gas appliances is not a smart economic decision. OPC’s appeal, which was supported by the Sierra Club, argued that broad, unqualified claims about gas are harmful to customers and that the Commission has a responsibility to protect customers from such deception.
Customers making decisions to replace furnaces, stoves, or water heaters—appliances with long service lives—based on marketing messages like those in Washington Gas’s bills may wind up spending significantly more money in the long run, OPC’s appeal pointed out. For example, for many people, buying a new efficient electric heat pump will be a better financial choice than a new gas furnace.
The appellate court also found that the Commission prematurely dismissed OPC’s claim that Washington Gas may have violated regulations covering its interactions with its competitive affiliate, WGL Energy Services. The court concluded that the record demonstrated there were still facts in dispute regarding the source of the marketing message. The court further concluded that certain Commission criticisms of OPC were not supported by the case record but resulted from “inaccurate information provided by Washington Gas throughout these proceedings.”
Since the Commission order dismissing OPC’s complaint in 2022, three of five total commissioners are new. One of two commissioners remaining that participated in the original decision, Commissioner Michael T. Richard, dissented from the 2022 dismissal of OPC’s complaint.
The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel is an independent state agency that represents Maryland’s residential consumers of electric, natural gas, telecommunications, private water and certain transportation matters before the Public Service Commission, federal regulatory agencies and the courts.
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