Lawmakers to focus on energy competition for small customers

Annapolis (Map, News) - When the General Assembly meets again, lawmakers plan to focus the debate over rising electric rates on ways to improve competition for residential and small-business customers.

Sen. Thomas Middleton, D-Charles County, said Monday he expects to see some legislation to make it easier for smaller electricity suppliers to enter the market and compete with larger suppliers such as Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. and Constellation Energy.

“Our basic approach was to make sure electricity was made available to residential ratepayers as cheaply as possible without affecting reliability,” said Del. Brian McHale, D-Baltimore City, a member of the House Economic Matters Committee. “They have not seen much of any benefit from the whole restructuring back in 1999. It’s mostly the big industrial users who’ve really benefited.”

Legislators said they are also waiting to see what Gov.-elect Martin O’Malley does with the Public Service Commission, an independent state agency that regulates utilities and whose members are appointed to five-year terms by the governor.

“One of the first orders of business, if it doesn’t occur on its own, will be the [resignation] of a majority of the commissioners [on the Public Service Commission],” said Middleton, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee that handles utilities regulation legislation.

During a special legislative session in June, lawmakers passed a bill that called for the firing of all the existing commission members and the appointment of new members by the General Assembly. But a court ruling stopped the legislature in its tracks, saying the members’ terms could not be terminated that way.

“The governor-elect intends to put professional, independent and competent regulators on the Public Service Commission,” O’Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said. “Then he’ll have them determine what a fair market rate for electricity might be.”

stracy@baltimoreexaminer.com

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