On the first day that Constellation Energy Group could file a lawsuit against the state alleging the unconstitutionality of $386 million in credits to ratepayers, Maryland beat them to the punch.
Attorney General Douglas Gansler filed the lawsuit Friday in Baltimore City Circuit Court against Constellation and its subsidiaries Baltimore Gas and Electric and Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, seeking a ruling on the constitutionality of the credits ordered by 2006 legislation.
Constellation representatives said the company would file its own lawsuit over the credits on Monday.
“The $386 million rightfully belongs to Maryland ratepayers, and we will do everything in our power to make sure that this cost is not passed onto consumers,” Governor Martin O?Malley said in a statement.
On Jan. 30, Constellation gave the state 30 days notice that it would terminate a standstill agreement with the state which had postponed a suit over the credits since November 2006.
Friday was the first day Constellation could have filed its suit, spokesman Rob Gould said.
Raquel Guillory, spokeswoman for the Attorney General?s office, said the timing of the state?s suit was coincidental.
Gould disagreed.
“The filing of the lawsuit today [Friday] by the State of Maryland is a pre-emptive step to challenge the venue of our pending litigation with the State,” Gould wrote in an e-mail statement. “We also do not believe it is appropriate ? that SB1 can properly limit a party?s right to file suit in federal court to enforce its rights under the U.S. Constitution.”
The attorney general?s office took issue with Constellation?s intention to file the suit in federal court, claiming that represents an attempt to circumvent Senate Bill 1?s requirement that any lawsuit challenging the law be filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court.
Constellation had sought regulatory approval of a 2006 merger with a Florida company, and in exchange agreed to provide $386 million in credits to ratepayers to cover costs of decommissioning of its Calvert Cliffs nuclear decommissioning plant.
That deal never materialized, but the credits did, which Gould said represents an unlawful taking of funds by the state.
