Gov. Robert Ehrlich got an earful during Tuesday?s marathon veto hearing on legislation to reduce electric rates and replace the Public Service Commission.
Opponents of the bill, which Ehrlich has lambasted, find it a bad bill in many different and often complicated ways. Supporters of the measure, which Ehrlich must act on by Thursday, find it very simply a good deal that will lower their BGE bills ? at least for a while. Foes of the bill praised the governor?s handling of the issue while backers of the General Assembly?s plan criticized it.
“There is no doubt that this is not the end of electricity regulation,” said Thomas Firey of the free-market Cato Institute. “This is a Band-Aid” but “Band-Aids are good” in many cases. “There will certainly be legislation in 2007,” Firey predicted and Assembly leaders agree.
James Chip DiPaula, the governor?s chief of staff, again criticized the lack of consumer choice for rate reduction, as did a number of opponents. All BGE customers will be forced to pay lower rates and a $2.19 carrying charge. Many consumers want to opt out of plan, and pay the full rates right away.
Lawyer Dan Friedman, who teaches constitutional law, said the provision to fire current members of the PSC violated the Maryland constitution although Attorney General Joseph Curran already declared that measure constitutional.
Sonja Merchant-Jones of ACORN, an organization representing low- and moderate- income people, said her organization neither favored nor opposed the legislation. “Let the increase be whatever is fair and just,” Merchant-Jones said. Perhaps the PSC should be elected, she suggested.
“Don?t just sit there and argue about the plan,” Susan O?Brien of Annapolis told Ehrlich. Come up with “a better plan.”
“We need to fix the problem now,” added Mary Marsh of Arnold, former legislative chair of the Sierra Club. Marsh wants to see all the candidates for governor pledge to fix the structure.
