Repeal of STRIDE prompts clash over safety, rates and pace of pipe replacement
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Summary
Delegate Dylan Baylor's HB 12-53 would repeal Maryland's STRIDE accelerated cost-recovery for gas-infrastructure replacement. Consumer advocates and cities urged repeal citing rising delivery rates; utilities, PHMSA officials and unions warned repeal would slow removal of leak-prone materials and reduce safety.
Delegate Dylan Baylor asked the committee to repeal the STRIDE accelerated gas-infrastructure cost-recovery mechanism with HB 12-53, arguing it has driven sustained rate increases and accelerated utility profits while reducing PSC oversight.
"STRIDE would return to a well-tested form of financing," Baylor said, arguing that the General Assembly should remove incentives that encourage accelerated capital recovery and return to historic rate-making scrutiny.
The Office of the People's Counsel, Maryland PERC and AARP backed repeal, citing analyses that STRIDE and multiyear rate plans have increased customer bills and that removing STRIDE would slow rate growth. The Baltimore City Council president described heavy bill burdens in his city and urged repeal.
Utilities including Washington Gas, BGE and Columbia Gas opposed repeal. Washington Gas representatives and former PHMSA administrator Cynthia Quarterman said the STRIDE program accelerated replacement of unsafe cast-iron and bare-steel mains and services, reducing leaks and greenhouse-gas emissions and improving safety. Union witnesses warned that repeal would cost jobs and slow the pace of proactive replacement.
Questions for sponsors centered on notice requirements for customers, costs associated with replacements, and whether federal safety obligations would still be met. Sponsors and supporters said utilities must still meet federal and PSC safety obligations but that financing mechanisms should not create perverse incentives.
Next steps: committee members requested follow-up with PSC for technical clarifications on notice timing and implementation of recently enacted Next Generation Energy Act reforms.