Gas

A theft this month of 311 gallons of gasoline from a station in Baltimore is one in a series of similar incidents, according to the station's owner, who says people have been disabling pumps and allowing friends and relatives to fill their tanks for free Mehdi Rezakhan, who owns BP stations in Remington and East Baltimore, said each businesses has been hit once, and stations owned by friends have been taken several times, one for 1,800 gallons of...

ARLINGTON, VA. -- So it has come to this: A group of Senate Republicans has proposed $100 rebates to low-income people to ease their "pain at the gas pump." They also are entertaining the possibility of higher taxes on oil industry profits, as if government does a better job of spending money than private industry. Have they forgotten the last time government imposed a "windfall profits tax," from 1980 to 1988? Oil production fell (but demand grew) as "big oil" had less incentive to explore.

Lombard Street was closed for about three hours between Greene and Penn streets Friday afternoon due to a coolant gas leak at the University of Maryland Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said. A contractor working in the basement broke off a valve to a refrigeration system in a tank that holds coolant gas, said the spokeswoman, Sharon Boston. The gas can be an irritant, so as a precaution the haz-mat team from the city fire department is venting the gas outside, she said.

THE QUESTION most asked of gas utility companies this year is: "Why is my gas bill so much higher than last year?" The answer isn't simple. This winter, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and other utilities nationwide faced an unusual set of challenges that directly affected what we all pay for natural gas. But in the final analysis, it all comes down to limited supply and increasing demand. The early part of the winter was much colder than a year ago, a reality that has made a bad situation worse.

Renee Washington says she's not asking for special treatment from City Hall. The 58-year-old paraplegic just wants to make sure she and her neighbors are reimbursed for the stoves and water heaters damaged during a Valentine's Day gas main break that caused water to rush into their appliances. "We want to make hot meals for our families," says Washington, a resident of the Southwest Baltimore neighborhood of Mill Hill, who is attempting to organize her neighbors to action. "We want to take hot showers and baths.

MOSCOW - Russia's natural gas monopoly drastically cut flows to Europe through Ukraine yesterday, sharpening fears of winter fuel shortages. Despite warnings from the European Union, a pricing dispute between Gazprom and Ukraine showed no signs of letting up. As the two sides traded accusations and blame, negotiations remained frozen for the sixth day. Bulgarian authorities said two-thirds of their natural gas supply had been cut off and consumption would...

The next pain in your pocketbook will be natural gas. Baltimore Gas and Electric's "commodity" gas price for May was $1.30 per therm, and e-mail correspondents tell me it has risen even higher for June, although BGE hasn't posted it on its Web site. May's price is a whopping 39 percent higher than BGE's natural gas price from May last year. Natural gas still hasn't hit the post-Hurricane Katrina high of $1.63, in November 2005, but it might be on the way. Futures markets have natural gas at these levels until next spring.

Several homes and businesses in Northeastern Anne Arundel County were expected to be without natural gas service overnight after a subcontractor for Comcast ruptured a gas line while installing equipment yesterday morning near Sunset Elementary School, an Anne Arundel County Fire Department spokesman said. The rupture in the 8500 block of Fort Smallwood Road did not result in a fire, explosion or injuries, said Lt. Frank Fennell, the spokesman. The school was evacuated, traffic was halted, and more than 200 homes in the nearby Pine Grove Village lost gas service, which Fennell said would be restored house by house through the night or early today.

Home Depot: We fixed our Maryland sales tax glitch Maryland's sales tax went from 5 percent to 6 percent on Jan 3. (Although often it's a little more than 6 percent. See previous blog posts.) A few stores did not make a smooth transition, apparently. I got e-mail from readers who said they were overcharged a few cents at Home Depot stores. One was the White Marsh store. Spokeswoman Anne Manning said that there was a problem at a "few" stores and that it has been fixed. "We have not received any further customer complaints and believe the issue is resolved.