Utility Rate-Setting Is ‘Catch-22,’ MD Lawmakers, Advocates Say
The Daily Record, June 18, 2026
Across multiple legislative sessions, lawmakers have attempted to lower skyrocketing utility bills for Marylanders, mostly through incremental steps.
“Utility rates are very hard to reduce because a lot of the categories of costs — once they’re approved in rates — they’re very hard to reduce,” said David S. Lapp, the Maryland people’s counsel, a state consumer-protection authority. “But the … one component of rates where the state has a lot of control is the profit level, which is the return on equity, and it can provide an immediate way to give ratepayers substantial relief.”