General Assembly leaders say they have a better plan to reduce BGE electricity rate increases than either of the proposals negotiated by the company with Gov. Robert Ehrlich, and plan to pass it in the special session that begins Wednesday.
Ehrlich called the legislature?s proposal “the same old, same old from the same old people. ? The time for silliness is over.”
Lawmakers and the governor couldn?t even agree who had called the special session. Ehrlich allegedly issued his executive order before he had received a petition signed by a majority of delegates and senators forcing his hand by requesting a special session.
Democratic and Republican caucuses were still discussing the details of the legislation Monday evening. But it will:
» Establish a 15 percent increase in electric rates in July that will stay in place for 11 months.
» Replace the current Public Service Commission with a set of new appointees the governor must name from a list supplied by the legislature.
» Require that the commission consider a number of actions that will affect rates.
» Give the new commission the power to block the proposed merger between Constellation Energy and Florida Power and Light, and additional power to affect the transaction.
» Allow the new commission to consider recouping $528 million from BGE that customers paid to compensate the company for assets that did not go down in value, as had been expected.
» Give the attorney general the power to appoint the People?s Counsel to the commission.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich had not seen the bill but reacted negatively to its main provision.
“Postponing the pain is a real poor answer,” Ehrlich told reporters. “It makes a real bad result.”
He would not say whether he would veto the bills, but pointed out he and his administration had already negotiated two plans that reduced rates, one that the Senate failed to pass and a second overturned by a lawsuit filed by Baltimore City.
Ehrlich said the General Assembly?s plan undermines the company, and that blackouts and brownouts this summer are “possible,” as is the bankruptcy of BGE.
“Changing the Public Service Commission doesn?t change the cost of electricity,” said BGE spokesman Robert Gould.
The company?s credit ratings have already been hurt by the legislature?s actions, he said, and “there could be short- and long-term implications for the customers.”
“We?re not talking about brownouts,” Gould said, but “we?re just as frustrated and confused as our customers.”
