The Baltimore City Circuit Court recently denied a contempt motion filed by Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) against its former employees, who are whistleblowers, and their attorneys. As reported by CBS News Baltimore, the motion was filed following allegations from former workers who brought to light concerns over what they claim were falsified gas pipeline inspection records spanning four years.
According to the whistleblowers, a BGE construction inspector had a sordid history of skipping actual field inspections and instead submitting fraudulent reports—actions that management allegedly failed to address. The Public Service Commission (PSC), while not granting the initial petition for intervention in BGE's multi-year rate proposal presented in December 2024, did launch an investigation into these claims. This move, caught in the crosshairs of an attempt by BGE to recover additional costs from ratepayers, surfaced incidents, including one where an employee was accused of spending work hours on a boat, as suggested by documents FOX Baltimore obtained.
A report from the PSC, dated April 11th, found that BGE did not adequately investigate or repair potentially compromised infrastructure, raising serious safety concerns and questions over charges to ratepayers for potentially uncompleted work. Conversely, BGE maintains that the implicated former employee's actions were isolated and did not pose a threat to the safety of the gas distribution system. The company refuted the existence of a pattern of falsified records and highlighted that disciplinary action taken in 2023 was a result of this individual's failure to meet audit expectations, rather than falsification of reports.
The June 3rd contempt hearing in the Circuit Court yielded a judgment on Tuesday. David Bana, representing the whistleblowers, heralded the court's decision as just. BGE had brought forth the motion "as a transparent attempt to weaponize the judicial system against those who properly reported safety concerns to state regulators," Bana said in a press release, as reported by FOX Baltimore, suggesting an effort to silence legitimate whistleblowing activity and protected First Amendment speech. Meanwhile, BGE asserts it is not endeavoring to silence former employees but is engaged in ongoing court and PSC proceedings, committed to transparency and integrity.
