Shocking Developments

Looks like Governor O'Malley is going to fulfill his campaign promise to protect consumers from a massive BGE rate hike by allowing a massive BGE rate hike:

Baltimore Gas & Electric's residential customers will pay an estimated 5.5 percent more for electricity starting in June, largely as a result of federal rules that are driving wholesale energy prices higher, state officials and industry experts said yesterday.

The increase will add about $100 to the average customer's annual utility bill, although the amount will vary depending on usage, the state Public Service Commission said. When combined with increases imposed since rate caps expired in 2006, BGE customers will be paying 85 percent more for electricity than they were before the General Assembly approved deregulation in 1999.

News of the higher prices follows a complaint the PSC filed last week with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, blaming outdated wholesale market rules for handing windfall profits to certain Maryland power generators. A different set of FERC- approved rules contributed to the latest price increase, the PSC staff said. Both sets of rules and other factors driving wholesale electric prices higher are at the heart of the PSC's current drive to bring utility rates down.

No word yet on how the O'Malley Administration is going to blame the rate hike on Bob Ehrlich or President Bush. But I presume that this is just another phase of the roll-out of O'Malleynomics across our state.

Is there any campaign promise that Martin O'Malley plans to live up to?