Joyous Day In Maryland With Electric Rate Hikes

I have written several times before about the Baltimore Gas and Electric (BG&E) rate hike and why it is warranted. For those who are unfamiliar, I will give the condensed version. Maryland has had Democrats running the state for decades. The last Governor was the first Republican in more than three decades. In 1999, long before he served as Governor, the Maryland General Assembly and the Public Service Commission (PSC) along with Governor Glendening (a Democrat) decided that deregulation of the energy company would be good for business by forcing competition (O'Malley's brother-in-law was a member of that PSC). The fact that some of the key players received a lot of money from lobbyists did not play into this (no, not at all). They passed a bill that held BG&E to 1993 electric rates for seven years. When that time was up there had been no competition (who wants to do business where you can not make money because you are held to 1993 rates?) and the rates were scheduled to go up 72%. Governor Ehrlich tried to get a plan that would ease this burden but indicated that eventually people would have to pay the piper. Baltimore City Mayor (Saint) Martin O'Malley opposed this plan, took it to court and got a 15% increase instead of the Ehrlich plan or the entire 72%.

Then, O'Malley ran a campaign based upon his concern for our working families and he told everyone he beat back Ehrlich and his PSC. O'Malley said the reason that they would not do anything was because Ehrlich and the PSC were in bed with the energy companies. The Saint Martin plan did not allow customers to opt in to pay the full increase. Instead, the government told people they had to phase it in and pay an interest charge (and this from people who can not balance their own budget). The legislators in Annapolis deferred any further rate talks until after the gubernatorial election which O'Malley won. The affluent people in the wealthy DC suburbs voted for him and the poor folks in Baltimore City and the poorer DC suburbs voted for him and that is all you need to win in Maryland because they are the most populated areas (and are infested with Democrats). People voted for Saint Martin because he was looking out for them, their champion and because he was a Democrat. Well, things seem to have changed a bit since Saint Martin pledged to prevent the 50% increase from taking effect (the next increase due under the plan worked out by Marty with the help of the court). He promised that he would not let the evil energy company screw the people, dragon slayer that he is.

Article Author: Big Dog

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Big Dog is retired after 24 years of service in the Regular Army and National Guard. He currently works as an Occupational Health Nurse Consultant and spends a lot of time pushing Conservative issues. …

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