Damage control.
That?s what Constellation Energy and Baltimore Gas and Electric attempted Tuesday in a luncheon meeting with reporters at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront.
Constellation CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III told reporters that polls shows that pending rate hikes at BGE top the issue list on voters? and candidates? minds this election year. Constellation is the parent company of BGE.
Shattuck said the debate has unfairly tarnished the reputation of employees and helped stall discussions with Florida-based FPL Group about a planned merger with Constellation.
Every day, the company finds itself reacting to a new story or “misinformation” about its plan to raise utility rates 72 percent beginning July 1 after seven years of rate caps set by the Maryland Public Service Commission, Shattuck said.
“We thought that anything we said might be offensive to one party or another,” Shattuck said in explaining why the company was reluctant to speak out earlier.
“This is business on one hand and politics on the other and that?s what we have to deal with.”
Indeed, the company is under attack by Baltimore City, which has filed a lawsuit against the company?s rate stabilization plan.
BGE?s 1.1 million residential customers can begin paying 72 percent higher rates July 1 or opt to phase in the higher rates over 18 months with a 19 percent hike beginning July 1.
And elected officials in Howard County plan to ask the commission to determine that unfair utility competition exists in their communities, thus allowing residents to form energy cooperatives to seek bids to power their homes.
A petition group has been formed to seek signatures from Maryland residents urging local officials and the governor to challenge the rate hikes. Maryland Public Interest Research Group, a consumer activist group, has asked Baltimore City Circuit Judge Albert J. Matricciani Jr. to declare the rate increase invalid and dismiss four members of the commission for allegedly violating the state?s Open Meetings Act by meeting with the governor?s chief of staff.
“The rate hike is just the tip of the iceberg for everything from the merger to problems with PSC,” said Johanna Neumann, an advocate for MaryPIRG.
Efforts to reach a compromise failed in the Maryland General Assembly. Some advocates have called on Gov. Robert Ehrlich to call a special session to resolve the issue.
But Shattuck said Tuesday that lost in the debate is the fact that the 72 percent rate hike would bring BGE rates in line with rates charged by other utility companies in the region.
