Posted on 02/01/2008 12:09:00 PM PST by JZelle
ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley yesterday said he plans to do all he can to restore state regulatory power over utilities, a day after Constellation Energy announced a lawsuit to recoup $386 million it says Maryland shouldn't have forced them to give customers.
"I also want to add that we will spare no expense when it comes to investing in whatever additional legal help that we need, or whatever professional experts and consultants we need, or expert witnesses in order to stand up for the best interests for the people of our state," Mr. O'Malley said.
The governor, who reconfigured the Public Service Commission (PSC) shortly after he took office, criticized the previous PSC for not being committed to keeping prices down.
"But there's a new commitment now, and that commitment is to face this challenge dead-on and to do what we must in order to secure more affordable and stable energy for Maryland in the foreseeable future," said Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat.
Constellation announced Wednesday it plans to sue the state in federal court to get back $386 million in credits customers received to soften the blow of a 72 percent rate increase. The credits were approved by lawmakers in a June 2006 General Assembly special session to address rising costs because of Maryland's decision to deregulate the electricity market in 1999.
Constellation, which is the parent company of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. (BGE), has charged that a recent report by state regulators on the impact of deregulation on customers is full of errors. The company also said the report is indicative of an unfairly hostile regulatory climate, throwing the energy marketplace in Maryland into uncertainty.
Constellation has even floated the idea of building a new nuclear reactor in New York instead of Maryland as previously planned.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
My electric bill (BGE) has gone through the roof the last few months. And on top of that the Boy Governor is raising taxes - the misery quotient is getting pretty high in the People’s Republic of Maryland!
forward to the past
When you regulate the hell out of an industry, there’s no cheap way of getting out of the box you eventually find yourself in.
“The credits were approved by lawmakers in a June 2006 General Assembly special session to address rising costs because of Maryland’s decision to deregulate the electricity market in 1999.”
In other words, it’s eight years later and they’re still paying for the sins of earlier greedy politicians. Same thing happened when the Iron Curtain fell in Eastern Europe. There was a lot of economic suffering, but the countries that didn’t deal with it back then are still suffering.
I would guess, though I haven’t seen the details, that that earlier “deregulation” was like the one produced by Pete Wilson and Gray Davis in California, where they deregulated at the wholesale level but kept the clamps on at the retail level. The longer you wait to fix it, the worse the suffering that results.
Texas is the poster-child for deregulation of electric services. We were warned that if we didn’t get deregulation, we would have skyrocketing rates, reduced services, and brownouts. Well, we have deregulation, and our rates are almost 100% higher than other states, we have less generation facilities and we’ve had our first brownouts. The utility companies are making disclosed profits of 35%, higher than the pharmacutical companies or Exxon/Mobil (the favorite high-profit whipping boy).
Utilities do not work like other companies. There’s so little actual competition that deregulation amounts to a license to steal. I should know - I live in Texas.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
My Dominion Power bill in VA has been going down over the last five years. This move will only increase your bill.
And pay for the lawsuit on top. It won't matter if he wins; to a Democrat, succeeding doesn't matter; looking like you're trying is good enough. He can always blame it all on Ehrlich.
If prices are CAPPED, it is NOT “deregulated”.
Our prices were capped in ‘99 to 199*3* rates - not at all fair, sorry! They lost money in ‘99 basically and kept losing as costs actually got worse. And because prices were capped (never mind other regulations), no competition came in!
The all-important “consumer” of course, was fine paying pennies. Then the sunset comes up, and all hell broke loose.
Communism just doesn’t work.
Prices go up; it’s not shocking in this heavily regulated world.
While I’d rather we still had plain BG&E (1 of the greatest companies there could’ve been), I’ll back Constellation on this. I hope they can kick some butt, because MD needs kicking.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.