Since 2014, Washington Gas (WGL) has been working to modernize the District’s natural gas distribution system by replacing older pipelines throughout the region. Although the company claims to do so for ensured safety and reliability across the area, local climate advocates disapprove of the plan, deeming it more harmful than beneficial to residents and the environment.
“Washington Gas is doubling down on fossil fuel infrastructure because it helps their bottom line, despite D.C residents and leaders making it clear [that] we want to invest in the future– clean, affordable energy, not the past of dirty methane gas,” said D.C. Campaign Manager for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), Claire MIlls, at a Nov. 18 rally dissenting Washington Gas’s proposed plan.
The project, initially named PROJECTpipes, underwent two phases between 2014 and 2025. As of Dec. 31, 2023, the initiative replaced 38.1 miles of mains and 8,497 service lines. WGL proposed a third phase in 2023, but it was rejected by the Public Service Commission of the District of Columbia (DCPSC) in 2024, which ultimately led to the creation of the current project: the District Strategic Accelerated Facility Enhancement (District SAFE) Plan.
Still under review by DCPSC, District SAFE is intended to run through December 2027 and replace or fix approximately 12 miles of mains and 3,600 service lines, costing an estimated $215 million. It would also include a Customer Choice Pilot Program, which would give residents the option to permanently discontinue their gas services instead of having their lines replaced.
While the DCPSC evaluates the plan, considering factors such as cost impacts on ratepayers and alignment with the city’s climate goals, residents and environmental advocates feel it’s unsustainable and won’t keep the city safe, unlike its name suggests, crediting this disapproval to the surcharge in energy bills and an increase in hazardous gas leaks throughout the area.
“I feel that my utility bills have been getting higher,” Silver Spring resident Lauren Gygax told The Informer at the Nov. 19 rally. “My neighbors, my community and friends in D.C have been struggling with their utility bills, and I feel that continuing on with these costly gas infrastructure projects [is] not what people want. It’s not what we need.”
On Nov. 19, the DCPSC voted in favor of a 13% increase in gas rates from WGL, which includes a $12.5 million transfer from the company’s pipe replacement plan. According to CCAN, this hike in rates comes as one in seven gas users in the city are behind on their bills.
In reaction to this decision, advocates disrupted the DCPSC’s evidentiary hearing reviewing the proposed plan on Tuesday, Dec. 9. After continuously changing “PSC do your job,” the hearing was closed to the public.
“As utility regulators remain asleep at the wheel and leave Washington Gas’ corporate greed unchecked, advocates today spoke out in protest to ensure families and residents have access to affordable, reliable heating that doesn’t break the bank,” Mills said in a press release following the hearing.”Today’s disruption was a cry for accountability, and a demand that our regulators finally wake up.”
Despite these concerns, WGL believes District SAFE is a vital part to maintaining dependable infrastructure in the area.
“Through this program, we’re identifying aging, leak-prone pipes and replacing infrastructure to meet the highest standards,” the company said in a statement sent to The Informer. “Guided by federal regulations and recommendations, these investments are essential to building a safer, more resilient energy network for the more than 160,000 residents and businesses we serve every day.”
A Need for Greener Change
While the total number of gas leaks in mains throughout the District decreased from 728 in 2016 to 689 in 2024, the number of hazardous leaks grew, with 342 hazardous gas leaks reported in 2016, and 473 in 2024– a 38% increase.
In 2022, activists and neighborhood researchers from Beyond Gas D.C., a coalition of climate, faith and community groups working to ensure access to clean and affordable energy for Washingtonians, found 389 gas leaks across all eight wards using an industry-grade methane detector. Out of these, 14 were at or exceeded the 50,000 parts per million threshold that deems a leak potentially explosive.
When methane, the gas primarily used for heat and light, is combusted, it produces carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. Gas appliances such as stoves, furnaces and dryers, also release other gases, including carbon monoxide and formaldehyde, into the home. According to the American Lung Association, the air indoors can be 2-5 or even 100 times more polluted than it is outdoors.
“I have grandchildren, and I worry about the future, given the vast climate change that we’re witnessing,… and fossil fuels are driving that change, killing our environment and ourselves,” D.C. resident Jean Tepas told The Informer. “It’s a very old way of providing energy, and we need to look toward the future, not keep propping up the past.”
Hannah L. is an organizer with Extinction Rebellion, an international, nonviolent, politically non-partisan movement aimed at urging governments to tackle the current climate and ecological emergency fairly. She believes that although climate progress seems to be regressing, people must remain resilient in the fight toward a more sustainable future.
She told The Informer that reform is unlikely to occur within a shareholder-owned private utility company like WGL, and that to see change, residents and environmental advocates must focus on what their representatives and regulators can do to minimize the power of such companies and explore alternatives.
“We have to be thinking about dramatic changes because that’s the scale of action needed to meet the scale of the problem we’re faced with,” she continued to tell The Informer. “We can already see the scale of human suffering that [climate change] is bringing about, and… each degree of warming that we can avert matters because… it’s inseparable from any global justice issue.”
Alternatives to natural gas in homes and businesses that are sustainable and more affordable exist– such as heat pumps that can replace furnaces and air conditioners. Instead of generating heat, these pumps use electricity to move heat from a cool area to a warmer place.
Air-source heat pumps, which transfer heat between homes and the outside air, are the most common. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, modern-day heat pumps have the potential to “reduce your electricity use for heating by up to 75%.” These pumps are connected by ductwork, which not all homes have. Nevertheless, alternatives such as minisplit heat pumps still exist and are a ductless air-source variant.
Tepas hopes the city can lean on more sustainable energy solutions to ensure a greener future– not only for her grandchildren, but all the generations that will follow them.
“One thing I think we can all agree on is that [energy from natural gas] is not sustainable for our future, and to keep it going just to keep shareholders’ money in their pockets is morally wrong,” she told The Informer. “The future of our planet is in our own hands, not in the hands of powerful people.”