Gov. Robert Ehrlich rejected the General Assembly?s electricity rate relief plan Thursday afternoon, saying it didn?t give consumers enough choice and forced them to pay interest.
The governor announced his veto in a letter to Senate President Thomas “Mike” Miller. The legislature will convene at noon today to vote whether to make the bill law despite Ehrlich?s objections.
In the letter, the governor asked the General Assembly to work on “an alternative solution that will prove more consumer friendly and will not discriminate against BGE customers.”
“In [vetoing Senate Bill 1], I do not reject the central purpose of the legislation,” Ehrlich said in the letter. “To the contrary, I support such legislation so long as consumers who need rate relief are given the best relief possible, while those who wish to decline are not forced to participate in such a plan.”
Ehrlich called for a plan to allow BGE customers the choice of whether to opt out of any rate relief plan, elimination of interest payments and the reinstatement of the People?s Counsel Patricia Smith.
House Minority Whip Anthony O?Donnell said Republicans introduced a bill during last week?s special session that was similar to the bill hammered out in the last hours of the regular session in April and included a consumer choice plan.
But House Speaker Michael Busch dismissed the possibility that such a plan would ever get a hearing.
“This is over,” he said.
The plan approved last week passed both the Democrat-controlled Senate and the House of Delegates by large margins.
“It?s been about politics and not policy all along,” O?Donnell said. “The Democrats will just ram this through.”
The legislature worked late into the night June 14 to craft a rate relief plan to avert a 72 percent increase in electric bills for BGE customers on July 1.
The bill capped rates at 15 percent above existing rates for 11 months.
At the end of the 11-month period, customers would have the option to take the rest of the increase up to market rates, or choose a gradual phase in of the higher rate. Customers would also have to pay a flat $2.19 carrying charge.
The plan also dismantled the Public Service Commission, the body responsible for approving utility rates, and forced the governor to appoint a new commission from a list of names supplied by the General Assembly.
