Maryland Supreme Court order advances OPC case alleging gas utility deceived customers with green marketing
BALTIMORE – The Maryland Supreme Court last week denied Washington Gas Light’s request that it review a lower appeals court’s decision in support of the Office of People’s Counsel’s complaint against the utility for its marketing of natural gas (which is primarily methane) as “clean” energy. The Court’s ruling paves way for OPC’s 2021 complaint to advance at the Public Service Commission, which had dismissed the case in early 2022 without addressing its merits.
“After more than two years of delay, we look forward to addressing the substance of the utility’s marketing claims and how those claims ended up on customer bills,” said People’s Counsel David Lapp. “The courts have vindicated that our complaint should never have been dismissed, and we are confident that the evidence will prove the misleading nature of the utility’s environmental and economic marketing claims.”
The advertising on Washington Gas utility bills 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 methane gas as “clean” and that, for most residential customers, buying new gas appliances is not a smart economic decision.
OPC appealed the Commission’s decision to dismiss its 2021 complaint, arguing that unqualified claims about gas harm customers and that the Commission has a responsibility to protect customers from such deception. In a December 2023 ruling, the Appellate Court of Maryland agreed that the Commission erred in dismissing OPC's complaint.
Addressing the Commission’s rationale for dismissing OPC’s complaint, the appellate court stated that “[t]he Commission cannot dismiss a complaint simply because it is ‘not interested’ or does not want to address it.” The court further observed that the case record did not support certain Commission criticisms of OPC but rather resulted from “inaccurate information provided by Washington Gas throughout these proceedings.”
Washington Gas asked the Maryland Supreme Court to review the appellate court’s decision, and last week’s order denied that request. OPC’s complaint was supported by the Sierra Club.
Since the Commission order dismissing OPC’s complaint, three of five total commissioners are new. One of two commissioners remaining who participated in the original case, 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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