As temperatures plummet, Maryland utility customers should be able to heat their homes without being forced to choose between utility bills and groceries or prescriptions, yet multi-million dollar utilities keep raising rates for customers while service outages continue. As a regulated monopoly, residents have few choices on how to heat and light their homes. Today, utility companies shift many of their business expenses onto our utility bills.

Economic Action Maryland Fund is working to pass HB1/SB2, which would help lower energy bills and protect ratepayers. This bill would:

• Cap the amount of executive salaries and bonuses that are passed onto us through our utility bills at roughly $250,000;
• Prohibit companies from paying their employee bonuses using ratepayer dollars unless those bonuses are directly related to customer service benchmarks;
• Provide the Public Service Commission, which regulates utility companies, with clear authority to reject excessive recovery of costs by the energy companies.

Support HB1/SB2 today!

This bill would help Maryland utility customers lower their energy bills. BGE acknowledged that HB1/SB2 would reduce costs for ratepayers. Under their conservative estimates, customers could recover at least $24 per year. Actual savings may vary by service territory and month and could be higher. Even modest savings of $5 per month add up to $60 annually—enough to cover a week of essential groceries for many families.

Exelon, the parent company of BGE and Pepco, paid its CEO $14.66 million in total compensation in 2024. Shareholders, not Marylanders, should pay for that excessive compensation – especially when so many families are struggling to afford their utility bills and still pay for necessities such as groceries and medicine.

Take action to support HB1/SB2 – because ratepayers should not fund executive pay, bonuses, and other compensation! Thank you for your voice, emails, and social media shares. YOUR actions help us to counter the corporate energy lobby.