A letter signed by two-thirds of the D.C. Council’s members argues that Washington Gas’s District SAFE proposal fails to address safety, drives up energy costs for District residents, and conflicts with city’s climate commitments

WASHINGTON, DC — Amid rising energy costs across the District driven by costly infrastructure spending and increased calls for utility accountability, eight D.C. council members, led by Councilmember Charles Allen, signed on to a letter urging the D.C. Public Service Commission to reject Washington Gas’s latest application to continue its accelerated pipeline replacement program, arguing the gas utility’s proposal does not “meaningfully advance the goal of providing both safe and reliable power to District residents.” 

Washington Gas resubmitted a $215 million pipeline replacement proposal, rebranded as ‘District SAFE,’ after the Commission had rejected the gas utility’s ‘PROJECTpipes 3’ application last June. The rebranded proposal would cost gas customers $9.8 million per mile to replace gas pipelines and is 43% more expensive than Washington Gas’s previous application.

Councilmembers argue that the high price of Washington Gas’s new plan would only saddle District residents with the rising costs of maintaining outdated infrastructure while undermining the District’s transition to clean energy. 

“The message from advocates and now from the Councilmembers is clear: accelerated pipeline replacement, whether called Project Pipes or District SAFE, is not a part of the clean energy future in the District,” concluded Claire Mills, D.C. Campaigns Manager for CCAN Action Fund. “We are grateful to these Councilmembers for their continued leadership, and urge the Public Service Commission to stand up to Washington Gas’s greed and reject this program once and for all.”

This letter comes just days after more than two dozen advocates called on the D.C. Council for stronger oversight of the Public Service Commission in order to provide energy bill relief. Residents have called out the Commission’s tendency to rubber-stamp costly methane gas pipeline spending and failure to push utilities to demonstrate how their infrastructure spending aligns with D.C.’s climate laws.” As D.C. residents are seeing their electric bills rise as a result of this regulatory decision, Exelon, Pepco’s parent company, lauded the Commission’s vote as evidence it is delivering profits to its shareholders. 

“The Public Service Commission has already forced D.C. residents to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for wasteful spending on fossil fuel pipelines. It makes no sense to waste millions more for a dirty energy system at the same time we’ve pledged to move away from dirty energy,” said Mark Rodeffer, the Sierra Club’s Beyond Gas DC Co-Chair. “It’s time for D.C.’s utility regulators to finally listen to District residents and their elected representatives and once and for all reject Washington Gas’s wasteful plan to lock us into fossil fuels for decades to come.”

The letter, signed by two-thirds of D.C.’s Councilmembers, demonstrates strong political support to mandate a shift towards targeted leak repairs necessary for public safety – a significantly cheaper and more efficient approach. Additionally, the Council urges the PSC to take proactive steps to ensure Washington Gas moves towards electrification and reduces natural gas use.

Read the full letter here.

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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) Action Fund is dedicated to driving change in public policies at the local, state, and national level to address the climate crisis. Through voter education, lobbying, and participation in the electoral process, we seek to advance our country’s leadership in the global movement toward clean energy solutions — focusing our efforts primarily in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. We know that a vibrant democracy is central to our success so we work to defend democratic integrity wherever we can