Mayor Martin O?Malley has blasted an appeal by the existing members of the Public Service Commission seeking to delay their dismissal.
“We don?t need the distraction of this ineffective PSC,” O?Malley said in a written statement.
“We need to get a new PSC in place and back to doing the important work that the public expects it to do,” he said.
Members of the Public Service Commission who were to be fired by the state legislature sought to delay their dismissal Thursday by filing an appeal with the Maryland Court of Appeals. The appeal was filed after circuit court Judge Albert Matricciani Jr. denied PSC members? request for an injunction of a law passed by the Maryland General Assembly that would have dismissed them effective 5 p.m. today.
The law granted Gov. Robert Ehrlich the opportunity to choose new commissioners between July 1 and 15. The new commissioner would be selected from a list of candidates chosen by Mike Miller, speaker of the Senate and Michael Busch, speaker of the House of Delegates. If the governor does not chose from the list, then Busch and Miller will appoint new commissioners themselves.
The PSC has borne the brunt of criticism over the proposed 72 percent Baltimore Gas & Electric rate increase, with Matricciani ordering the commission to hold new hearings on its decision to approve a rate deferral plan negotiated by the governor and Constellation energy, BGE?s parent company. Since then, the General Assembly approved a new rate deferral plan during a special session that would increase rates by 15 percent, effective tomorrow.
