No one likes to open their Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. bill these days. The prices cause many people to gasp for air. But as Peter Van Doren of the Cato Institute and University of Maryland Baltimore County professor Timothy Brennan said at a Maryland Public Policy Institute forum Thursday, no simple solutions exist to lowering electricity prices in either a regulated market or a partially deregulated market like Maryland.
We like to offer readers clear solutions. And the vast majority of the time, that means allowing the free market to work. But electricity markets may be “different” than other markets, largely because electricity must be used as it is generated. It?s not a pair of jeans that can be stored in a warehouse and shipped to a store with low inventory. It must be used right away. And it can only go where lines provide it access.
