O’Malley’s Energy Plan - Rolling Blackouts

Your misleading headline and an aggressively worded rhetorical question here indicate to me that your real statement here is, “I do not want O’Malley to be governor”. There are no “rolling blackouts” proposed – that is a poor scare tactic statement. It tells me that those working for the Republican Party in this state would rather resort to cheap shots than real solutions. Better would be to quit politicizing issue and actually gave a damn about the working poor. My gas & electric is $75+ a month now for a 3-room apartment. My $300 per week is stretched to breaking point now in supporting my family. A 72% rate increase will be a crushing blow to it and force me to look at some public assistance just to get by. There needs to be an equitable solution to this issue and less crap from those posing as media.

Doesn’t Delmarva Power still operate power plants using coal? Vienna, Md? Indian River? Just curious.

Dear Jane,

First of all I don’t work for the Republican Party of Maryland (or any other state). Second, you are absolutely right that I don’t want O’Malley elected governor.

As to your other concerns, you are a tad misinformed. If you are living on the Eastern Shore and are served by Delmarva Power your rates are not scheduled to go up 72%. Second, PEPCO (the parent of Delmarva Power) has announced a plan where you can choose to take the increase in smaller amounts. This amounts to an interest free loan. If you are served by Choptank your rates aren’t supposed to go up at all. If you live in Delaware you will receive a big increase or be charged interest to opt in to the increase over time.

I sympathize with you. The problem is that the Maryland General Assembly, which is controlled by the Dems, agreed to this policy in 1999. They received some short term gain because electricity rates were frozen. Since that time the cost per BTU of energy for generation has gone way up and now nobody wants to pick up the tab.

If O’Malley actually implemented his proposal there would be rolling blackouts in the areas served by BG&E. Constellation Energy has already said so. Nobody proposes rolling blackouts. You just wake up one morning and the paper says that the utility will start them on a certain date because they can’t afford to sell electricity for less than they are paying for it.

This was one of the problems with deregulation. Most people think that their electrical utility owns the generation plant. In most cases they don’t. They are having to bid against other utilities for the electricity even though the plant may be in their own backyard.

The short answer is no. I’m pretty certain that both plants, which do burn coal, were sold to another company during the early part of deregulation. I believe that the company that bought them is based in California. They buy kwh’s from the plants but they don’t own them.

I’m with you on not wanting O’Malley elected mayor, but the reason there were rolling blackouts in California was that there were energy shortages. BGE wouldn’t have that excuse, they produce enough energy for the states needs.

That’s my point. BG&E doesn’t produce energy anymore. Constellation does. Constellation isn’t going to sell electricity to BG&E if they can sell it to someone else for a higher price.

BG&E is owned by Constellation, but it is the regulated utility. The state can control BG&E’s rates, but not Constellation’s. Constellation’s rates are regulated by the FERC. Constellation has already gone on record that there could be rolling blackouts in BG&E’s service area if the state tries to force them to sell power at less than cost.

I heard today that a gallon of gas will be over $5.00 a gallon by this summer! This is a very reliable source folks so get used to it now. We just don’t have the refineries and everyone is buying SUV’s and killing us on volume usage in this Country!