A consumer watchdog organization says that Baltimore’s utility company has been putting profits ahead of safety when it chooses how to replace gas pipes.

Baltimore Gas and Electric has been replacing hundreds of miles of pipe, including cast iron that dates to the 1800s, used to transport gas to homes. It’s expensive work, and costs are passed on to ratepayers, but a new report says the work is needlessly pricey — putting unnecessary burdens on ratepayers.

Maryland PIRG Foundation, a consumer advocacy group, published the report Wednesday and held a press conference outside Baltimore City Hall with city and state leaders.

“The more a utility spends on new pipes and equipment, the more it can profit,” said Emily Scarr, senior adviser for Maryland PIRG. “This is a powerful incentive for wasteful capital spending.”

In a statement responding to Maryland PIRG’s report, BGE spokesperson Nick Alexopulos said regulators review and approve all of the utility’s infrastructure projects.

“BGE has for decades prioritized replacement of the riskiest, worst-performing gas pipes on its system,” Alexopulos said. “We continue to do this work today because it’s the right thing to do for our customers.”

But Maryland PIRG’s report says BGE is not putting enough urgency on replacing dangerously old pipes and is instead focusing on the wholesale replacement of its gas infrastructure. This spending has caused BGE’s rates to surge in recent years, the organization said.

Rising utility bills — and what’s causing them — are alarming people across the country. A UMBC survey from April found the cost of household energy bills was the top concern of residents in Baltimore County; about 79% of residents called it a “major” issue. In Baltimore, concern over utility bills was virtually tied with that of crime and poverty.

And rates are set to increase again this January.

Joining Maryland PIRG at the Wednesday press conference were City Council President Zeke Cohen and council members Mark Conway, Zac Blanchard and Mark Parker, as well Baltimore Del. Elizabeth Embry and Brittany Baker, the Maryland director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Their press conference came as winter sets in and temperatures are dipping, prompting households to crank up the heat — a point made multiple times at the outdoor event.

A typical gas bill has two main components: the cost of the gas, and the cost to deliver that gas.

For customers of Washington Gas, which operates in the D.C. metro area, Maryland People’s Counsel David Lapp said the cost of gas delivery has remained relatively stable over the past decade. But for BGE customers, he said, that cost more than doubled.

“What explains that difference?” Lapp asked. “It’s BGE’s massive spending on gas infrastructure.”

BGE is only partway through an ambitious, decades-long plan to replace its gas infrastructure at a cost of $4 billion. But because of the unique way that utilities finance their construction projects, Lapp said BGE’s customers will ultimately be on the hook for about $19 billion.

When it was Cohen’s turn to speak, he held up the most recent quarterly earnings for BGE’s parent company, Exelon, which reported surging profits by its Baltimore-based utility.

“These gains are — and I want to quote from this document — ‘primarily due to distribution rates associated with updated recovery of investments,’” Cohen said. “In other words, they dig up our pipes. We pay the bill. And their shareholders get a windfall.”

According to Maryland PIRG’s report, BGE’s increased gas infrastructure spending can be traced back to a 2010 gas explosion in California that killed eight people. In 2013, the Maryland legislature passed the Strategic Infrastructure Development and Enhancement (STRIDE) law, which encourages utilities to invest in their gas infrastructure.

But the speakers at Wednesday’s event said the STRIDE law stripped away key guardrails meant to protect ratepayers.

Maryland PIRG reviewed BGE’s filings with regulators for three dozen ongoing gas infrastructure projects. The watchdog found that a third of them listed “risk scores” as a reason for their selection, but nearly every project involved a “pressure conversion.”

Scarr said upgrading a low-pressure gas system could have some safety benefits, but BGE should not be prioritizing that over replacing cast-iron pipes — a much more serious safety concern.

Earlier this year, Maryland’s lawmakers passed a new law, shepherded by Embry, that empowers state regulators to take a closer look at BGE’s gas infrastructure spending.

Cohen lauded Embry for her “true political courage” and urged the state’s regulatory body — the Maryland Public Service Commission — to use the law and intervene now, before BGE’s rate rise.

“Freeze the rates,” Cohen said.