Three days after Maryland sued Constellation Energy Group and BGE to retain $386 million in credits to ratepayers, Constellation leveled its own lawsuit at state officials, alleging the credits are an unconstitutional taking of property.

The suit, filed in federal court in Baltimore by Constellation and two subsidiaries, including Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., also seeks affirmation of the 1999 settlement that deregulated Maryland’s electricity industry.

“The sanctity of an agreement is a basic tenet of business and cannot be selectively and unilaterally changed many years later, particularly after the other party has fully performed its obligations under the agreement,” Constellation Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mayo Shattuck said. “This means a contract is a contract, and the state must abide by the rule of law.”

Constellation announced it would file the suit Monday after the state sued the company Friday in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

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Under Senate Bill 1 of a 2006 special session of the General Assembly, Constellation was required to credit the 1.1 million Baltimore Gas and Electric ratepayers in Maryland $18.7 million per year in costs they would have otherwise paid for the decommissioning of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant.

That session was called after BGE announced a 72 percent rate increase, and the credits were lawmakers’ attempt to draw concessions for the bump as well as regulatory approval of Constellation’s proposed merger with a Florida company. That merger did not take place, but the company was required to pay the credits under the bill.

“In the face of rising energy costs, SB1 provided Maryland consumers with much-needed relief,” state Attorney General Douglas Gansler said in a statement Friday. “Despite receiving healthy and growing profits over the last several years, Constellation wants to boost its bottom line at the expense of hard-working Marylanders.”

But Constellation’s suit Monday said the bill was an attempt to “divert political blame for the impact of electric restructuring it had enacted in 1999.” The suit names as defendants Gov. Martin O’Malley, House Speaker Michael Busch, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, Gansler, Public Service Commission Chairman Steven Larsen and the four other PSC commissioners.

acahall@baltimoreexaminer.com