AARP, People’s
Counsel, Maryland
PIRG back bill to de-emphasize electricity competition.
Annapolis – A bill introduced in the General
Assembly would change the focus of the Public Service Commission from creating
competition in the retail electricity markets to ensuring safe, reliable and
affordable electricity for Maryland’s
consumers and small businesses.
House Bill 1314 (cross-filed with Senate Bill 538) also
explicitly directs the Commission to participate in federal agency proceedings
to protect the interests of Marylanders in the wholesale electricity markets.
“People in this state are being forced to choose lights and
heat, or food and medicine,” said Hank Greenberg, advocacy director for AARP
Maryland. “This legislation would help to change that by ensuring that the
Public Service Commission serves the public.”
Paula Carmody, head of the Office of the People’s Counsel
added, “Retail competition is not working for residential consumers in Maryland. It’s time for
the Commission to take a different approach.”
“We want to be sure that the utilities are acting in the
best interests of Maryland
consumers, and not just their shareholders,” said Maryland PIRG policy advocate
Johanna Neumann.
HB 1314, sponsored by Delegates McHale, Bobo, Conaway, Elliott, Hecht, Impallaria, Krebs,
Krysiak, Lafferty, Lee, Love, Manno, Mathias, Morhaim, Robinson, Rosenberg, Rudolph,
Vaughn, and Walkup, will
be heard in the House Economic Matters Committee at 1pm on Tuesday, March 4. The
complete text of the measure can be found at http://mlis.state.md.us/2008rs/billfile/HB1314.htm.
AARP is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50+ have
independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable to
them and society as a whole.
The Office of the People’s Counsel
is an independent state agency representing residential consumers of regulated
energy and telephone services.
Maryland PIRG’s
mission is to deliver persistent, result-oriented public interest activism that
protects consumers, encourages a fair, sustainable economy, and fosters
responsive, democratic government.
