The state Public Service Commission on Friday approved the $4.5 billion sale of half of Baltimore-based Constellation Energy’s nuclear business to French company EDF, on the condition that the company gives a one-time credit of approximately $100 to every Baltimore Gas and Electric residential ratepayer by next March.
In an order released Friday afternoon, the commission said its approval also depends on Constellation pumping $250 million into BGE by June 30, and limits the dividends the utility can pay to its parent company. The order would also restrict when BGE could seek rate increases.
The order gave Constellation and EDF until next Friday, Nov. 6 to inform the PSC whether they will proceed with the deal under those conditions.
In a brief statement, Constellation acknowledged the order, but did not provide further comment, pending a review of the order. Company spokesman Rob Gould also declined to comment.
Delegate Pat McDonough has introduced legislation establishing the Constellation Energy Group (CEG) Review Commission. The purpose of the proposal is to provide a group of experts and consumer advocates with the authority to investigate the reasons for the demise of this company. Delegate McDonough believes that current law and the authority of the Public Service Commission will not provide the opportunity to review why CEG stock tumbled from about $100 per share in January of 2008 all the way down to $24 per share.
Mr. McDonough maintains that shareholders and the public deserve to know what caused the financial troubles at CEG. It is important to know the role that management played and what steps the company’s executive leadership utilized to try and prevent the company’s problems.
The details surrounding the decision made by Constellation CEO Mayo Shattuck to sell the company, at what Delegate McDonough termed “a fire ...Continue Reading
Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers heated up about higher bills this winter can blame unusually cold weather for most the spike, the utility told state officials Thursday.
Though energy costs are slightly higher than last year, increased usage brought on by bitter cold temperatures is the biggest reason some ratepayers have seen their bills double in recent months, BGE representatives told the state’s Public Service Commission.
Annapolis Update – Energy – Deregulate or Reregulate? – Dec. 16, 2008
The final report to the Public Service Commission, “State Analysis and Survey on Restructuring and Reregulation (Task 2) and Analysis of Options for Maryland’s Energy Future (Task 3)” has been made. My committee, Economic Matters, has just received a briefing on it.
After listening to two hours of testimony by the Public Service Commission, I am still in full support of reregulation of the Maryland utility industry. The report showed that reregulation would be a good thing, starting three years after reregulation. This is supported by all the charts and statistics that were presented to us. In spite of this, unfortunately, the Commission feels that there are risks in reregulating.
One thing for sure, there has definitely been extreme risk in deregulation. The most recent risk is the devaluing of BGE and Constellation stock, which ...Continue Reading
First, the fairy tale. Constellation Energy is the victim of difficult economic times which resulted in the demise of the company. Fortunately, through the leadership of Mayo Shattuck, the company was saved from total destruction by a white knight named Warren Buffett. That’s the fairy tale.
One of the greatest moments of my career as a local newspaper reporter came a few days after Maryland District 7 Delegates Pat McDonough and Rick Impallaria got into a scuffle with a pro-immigration activist in an Annapolis hallway.
I was sitting at a Board of Education meeting and in a break between presentations, listening in on a hushed recounting of the incident. The board’s liaison to the state legislature was filling the school system’s second in command (a congenial guy named Ray Brown, who’s since taken another job) on details too grisly for print.
I leaned over and said, “You know the best part – when the guy pushed Pat McDonough…” and I held my hands up to show how a toupee might have been slipped halfway off (when we said we’d publish rumors, this is what we meant…Pat could very well be ...Continue Reading
Now that he’s been comfortably nestled in the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings for a few months, we’ve been wondering what’s up with the Honorable Chuck Boutin, former Aberdeen mayor and state delegate and erstwhile member of the Maryland Public Service Commission.
I spotted him, his massive skull nodding like a mutant head of cabbage, standing outside Klein’s in the All-America City on a recent afternoon. He was standing by the entrance, dominating the conversation with a diminutive woman who looked a bit past middle-age. When I came out, they were standing out in the parking lot, old Chuckles still yammering away at the lady, like she’d tried to get to her car and he’d followed her. I’m sure he was explaining how he managed to win himself the Great Reward in the Sky for all local politicians: a ridiculously cushy state job. ...Continue Reading
I spotted him, his massive skull nodding like a mutant head of cabbage, standing outside Klein’s in the All-America City on a recent afternoon. He was standing by the entrance, dominating the conversation with a diminutive woman who looked a bit past middle-age. When I came out, they were standing out in the parking lot, old Chuckles still yammering away at the lady, like she’d tried to get to her car and he’d followed her. I’m sure he was explaining how he managed to win himself the Great Reward in the Sky for all local politicians: a ridiculously cushy state job. 
