Gov. Martin O?Malley hopes the four appointees to the five-member Public Service Commission he swore in Tuesday will take action to reduce the large Baltimore Gas and Electric Company rate increases scheduled to hit consumers June 1.
But neither he nor the new PSC chairman, Steven Larsen, would predict what those increases might be.
“I hope there would be some mitigation to that jolt that we were told that we just had to accept,” O?Malley said at Larsen?s swearing-in ceremony.
The entire commission is scheduled to hold three days of hearings beginning April 17, and the utility company has been asked to respond to a list of 10 questions focused on the procurement process for wholesale electricity.
“I?m not going to comment on what the rates will or won?t be,” said Larsen, who was formerly the state insurance commissioner. Larsen said there was the impression consumers just had to accept whatever electricity price utilities could obtain on the wholesale market, but “I don?t think that?s what the General Assembly intended.”
“There?s a lot of work that can be done,” he said.
The state Senate passed legislation Thursday requiring the commission to review all the actions taken on rates by the previous Public Service Commission appointed by Gov. Robert Erhlich. The General Assembly tried to replace all of the commissioners last year, but that was ruled unconstitutional. Since then, three have resigned.
In order to get Larsen to accept the job, O?Malley agreed to pay him $185,000, 50 percent more than previous Chairman Kenneth Schisler received.
There also are proposals in Annapolis to allow municipalities, counties and other groups to purchase electricity.
“We need to develop cleaner alternative forms of energy,” O?Malley said.
After the hearings, the governor said he hoped the commission would come to him with recommendations about tweaking and changing the procurement process.
While the status of the PSC and its membership was in doubt, many hearings and decisions on other utilities were delayed.
“There is an incredible amount of important work that needs to be done,” Larsen said.
