Utility Bills

The directors of Baltimore Behavioral Health Inc., a major drug treatment provider in Baltimore, have laid off longtime executive William "Kris" Hathaway, as the once high-flying nonprofit continues to cut costs. The board of directors had earlier removed Hathaway as chief executive and put vice president Terry T. Brown in charge of the clinic, which specializes in treating people with both addiction and mental illness. In an emailed response to questions from The Baltimore Sun, board member Jay Miller said that Hathaway was laid off "in the interest of saving money.

The directors of Baltimore Behavioral Health Inc., a major drug treatment provider in Baltimore, have laid off longtime executive William "Kris" Hathaway, as the once high-flying nonprofit continues to cut costs. The board of directors had earlier removed Hathaway as chief executive and put vice president Terry T. Brown in charge of the clinic, which specializes in treating people with both addiction and mental illness. In an emailed response to questions from The Baltimore Sun, board member Jay Miller said that Hathaway was laid off "in the interest of saving money.

At the first sight of snow, Joan Toler heads for the closet. Living without electricity, the 50-year-old retired nurse has to pull on some pantyhose, boots and four sweaters to keep warm. Five blankets help, too. Toler, who drives a taxicab, can't pay the $2,800 that Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. says she owes and she disputes. Her service was cut off Nov. 2. "It's just crazy," said Toler, who says she brings home about $1,200 a month. "I'm freezing." As temperatures drop and fuel bills rise this winter, state agencies and utilities are aggressively seeking families and residents such as Toler who need help paying utility bills.

The Orioles are purchasing the contract of utility man Bill Hall from Triple-A Norfolk, an industry source has confirmed. Hall will report to Baltimore on today and will be available for tonight's Orioles' game against the Rays at Camden Yards, the source said. Signed to a minor-league contract on April 23, Hall became a free-agent  when he didn't make the Yankees' 25-man roster this spring. In 15 games at Norfolk, Hall put up a .222/.269/.381 line with four doubles, two homers and seven RBI. Hall has had success against left-handed pitching at Norfolk, hitting .444 (8-for-18)

Helen Brierley turned off her heat pump and has been air-drying her dishes. Amina Gauhar hangs her laundry on a clothes rack and even avoids the vacuum cleaner. Both have turned their thermostats way down. But despite efforts to conserve energy, their utility bills - like those of other Maryland residents - have doubled or even tripled during the past few months. As Maryland regulators and utility executives scramble to explain the sticker shock to thousands of angry customers, the Maryland Public Service Commission set up a hearing this week to address the sharp number of complaints.

The first home Mette Ramanathan and her husband considered buying was a 2,200-square-foot, five-bedroom place. It was too big for the couple, who were interested in space efficiency and lower utility costs. So they settled on a considerably smaller three-bedroom Cape Cod in Baltimore's Hamilton neighborhood. The larger house was "not only expensive but you're using and wasting an awful lot of space," said Ramanathan, who moved in May. "Even if we start a family, we don't need five bedrooms to start a family."

Charles W. Davis Sr., a disabled Vietnam veteran, says he never asked for charity in his life - until recently, when cold weather and rising fuel prices conspired to drive his heating bills into triple digits. Last month, Davis says, he received a $252 heating bill for his two-bedroom Owings Mills apartment - much more than he usually pays. A lapsed Catholic, he appealed to area churches, garnering some money but not enough to pay the whole bill. He is bracing himself for the next bill.

No, because it doesn't make any difference. The government will still be getting the money from us in the long run. What's the differenceif they lower it one place and jack it up somewhere else? I think they charge too much on taxes. I own a business and have to operate it on the confines of my budget. The government can't just tax when it needs more money. There has to be accountability.

As Gov. Martin O'Malley prepares to renew his push to build industrial wind turbines off Maryland's coast, a new poll shows strong public support even if the outlook for offshore wind development has grown cloudier lately. The mid-December survey done by OpinionWorks of Annapolis on behalf of a coalition of environmental groups finds that nearly two-thirds of voters statewide favor developing offshore wind power even if it would raise their utility bills by $2 a month. That echoes the finding of an earlier poll in September, in which 62 percent of those asked supported offshore wind.

As hot as it has been outdoors, it has been downright sweltering on the second floor of Rose Smith's West Baltimore rowhouse. "Oooh, it gets very warm, too warm in there," said Smith, standing outside her West Forest Park Avenue home of 40 years. But as she watches two men scale down a ladder from her flat roof - they look more like painters than roofers, with white paint caked on their arms and uniforms - Smith is dreaming of cooler days. Her black tar roof now sports a reflective white finish, a radical change from the traditional rowhouse look in Baltimore.

The Orioles have agreed to terms with veteran free-agent utility man Bill Hall, according to multiple industry sources. He will report to the club's Triple-A team in Norfolk and will replace Josh Bell, who was dealt to the Diamondbacks this weekend after he was designated for assignment. The Orioles like his glove at third base and his ability to hit for power against left-handed pitching. Hall spent most of his 10-year big-league career with Milwaukee, where he had a 35-homer, 85-RBI season in 2006, but the Orioles will be his seventh organization since the beginning of the 2009 season.

Count me among the minority. I don't favor adding $2 to our utility bills to pay for wind mills ("Public favors offshore wind power, poll says," Jan. 11). While I'm in favor of wind power and yes, $2 is not that much, let's look at what is really happening here. Electricity generated by any source is not delivered directly to the consumer. It is sold to brokers on the open market who then resell it to the highest bidder. So what that $2 will actually do is make the electricity cheaper to the brokers while people on fixed incomes or no income will be subsidizing rich energy brokers.

As Gov. Martin O'Malley prepares to renew his push to build industrial wind turbines off Maryland's coast, a new poll shows strong public support even if the outlook for offshore wind development has grown cloudier lately. The mid-December survey done by OpinionWorks of Annapolis on behalf of a coalition of environmental groups finds that nearly two-thirds of voters statewide favor developing offshore wind power even if it would raise their utility bills by $2 a month. That echoes the finding of an earlier poll in September, in which 62 percent of those asked supported offshore wind.

Two political leaders, an advocate for seniors and a community activist are to receive consumer-rights awards this month. The Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition said Thursday that it was naming U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings the "Federal Champion of the Year. " The group cited the Baltimore Democrat's efforts to help homeowners in danger of foreclosure and his "stalwart defense" of consumer rights, including support for the fledgling Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. State Del. Sandy Rosenberg, also a Democrat from Baltimore, will receive the "Legislative Achievement of the Year" for his work getting passed into law a requirement that arbitrators disclose their record in mandatory arbitration cases.

Maryland will fall far short of meeting its goal to reduce energy consumption 15 percent by 2015 if state regulators and officials don't take aggressive action, according to an analysis by a nonprofit consumer group. Gov. Martin O'Malley outlined the goal to reduce per-capita electricity use in his first term, as utility bills were soaring and the state faced the possibility of rolling blackouts in the coming years. But according to the consumer advocacy group Maryland PIRG, three years later the state is on target to fail to meet even half that goal.

Hoping to spur development of wind energy projects off Maryland's coast, Gov. Martin O'Malley is planning to introduce legislation that would require power companies in the state to buy electricity from turbines placed in the Atlantic Ocean, a spokesman said Wednesday. Details of the governor's bill are being worked out, spokesman Shaun Adamec said, but the O'Malley administration expects to propose legislation that would require utilities to sign contracts to buy significant amounts of power from offshore wind projects.

Think your BGE bill is high? Meet the Glaun family of Owings Mills. Their electricity bill last month topped $900. And that was a major improvement over January, when they had to pay a whopping $1,151. "It's quite embarrassing," said Kim Glaun, who says she turns off lights in empty rooms and lowers the thermostat at night. "We feel like there's a big hole in our house." Turns out, their house is full of little holes that appeared last week as purple splotches captured by an infrared camera that "sees" invisible cold pockets - evidence that chilly air is invading a home as warmth escapes.

The grinding noise of drilling two 400-foot-deep holes in the ground was ear-splitting, never mind the toll the job was taking on the front lawn. But Monica and Dave Borle leaned over the railing outside the front door of their Pasadena home on a sunny April morning as though they couldn't get close enough to the red flatbed truck with its generator and derrick. Their focus was less on the loud drama and more on what this mess promises: eco-friendly, efficient energy with a financial reward.

The Ravens don't play the Eagles this year, but they're at risk of falling behind in one other important competition: the race for the NFL's greenest stadium. Stadiums are big consumers of electricity and producers of waste, but they're trying to clean up their acts. In the last four years Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium has cut its appetite for electricity by 2 million kilowatt hours — about what 144 average households use in a year. This was thanks in part to replacing the old high definition video board, which required massive air conditioning, with a new system that runs without needing climate control.

For all the skeptics and snarlygasters who doubt that Gerald Winegrad's July BGE bill could be only $18.26, I present the former state senator and longtime conservationist to provide response and additional details. (A snarlygaster is a person who anonymously posts nasty and often ignorant comments at the end of stories and columns on newspaper websites. It's a play on snallygaster, which is the legendary monster said to lurk in Western Maryland mountains.) Last Thursday in this space, Mr. Winegrad offered his $18.26 bill as testament to his personal effort to conserve energy and to show other Maryland consumers how we can save on our utility bills.