By Ann E. Marimow and John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 28, 2006; A01
The General Assembly moved yesterday to resolve a burgeoning crisis over electricity rates with a plan to dismantle Maryland's primary regulatory agency, which lawmakers said had become beholden to power companies.
Under a bill that was rewritten and cleared a Senate committee in a single day, the legislature would mount what is in essence a hostile takeover of the Public Service Commission, dismissing its five members April 9 and taking authority to appoint four of the five replacements April 10, before electric bills are set to rise.
In the House of Delegates, another bill approved yesterday would give the state more leverage in a merger involving Maryland's largest electric company.
Perhaps the most startling aspect of the legislative action was that it gained support from Republicans, even those who have been staunch allies of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who is the first Republican to govern Maryland in a generation and who now has sole power to appoint the commission's members.
Ehrlich dismissed the maneuvering as partisan politics and lawmakers "running for cover" from a system they created when they deregulated the state's energy market in 1999.
All this came on one of the busiest days of the legislative session. Hundreds of bills, including the state's $29 billion budget, came before the Senate and House of Delegates as lawmakers sought to beat a deadline for moving legislation.
And it underscores the extent to which the electricity rate increases have come to dominate the final weeks of the 90-day session. Measures once considered far more contentious -- slot machine gambling and a ban on same-sex marriage -- appear all but dead two weeks before the legislature adjourns. Others, including state spending on stem cell research, are largely resolved.
The budget, which includes a freeze of tuition rates at public universities, won final approval yesterday, a week ahead of schedule. Lawmakers also voted to restore health benefits for legal immigrants and to give tax breaks to elderly homeowners and military veterans. They rejected a first-in-the-nation bid to add homeless people to those covered by the state's hate-crimes law.
Much of the frenetic activity was driven by a deadline for bills to pass at least one chamber. With the session heading into its homestretch, the fate of several other marquee issues have become clear.
The legalization of slot machine gambling -- a priority of Ehrlich's that dominated past sessions -- recently died a quiet death after Senate leaders canceled a hearing. And, barring further court rulings, the session is likely to end without another vote on putting a same-sex marriage ban into the state Constitution.
The House, meanwhile, is poised to pass legislation this week that would make Maryland one of the first states to fund stem cell research in the wake of a 2001 executive order by President Bush that restricted federal support for the science. A bill to do that died a on the final day of last year's session amid a filibuster threat.
All but certain to pass this year as well is legislation stepping up supervision of sex offenders. A comprehensive bill has passed the House, and the Senate is expected to follow suit.
When the Public Service Commission announced this month that Maryland's electricity rates would soar in the summer, it became a target of legislative efforts.
For Pepco's 500,000 customers in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, the typical household bill would increase 38.5 percent. Baltimore Gas and Electric's 1.1 million customers in Baltimore and the surrounding region would see an average increase of 72 percent.
Taking aim at the commission yesterday, the Senate moved to effectively fire its five commissioners in April and allow the General Assembly to appoint four and the governor to appoint one new member.
"If we had a Public Service Commission that wasn't industry-driven, that was fair, that could look at the facts, we wouldn't have 72 percent," said Sen. Paula C. Hollinger (D-Baltimore County). "The public has to have confidence."
All but one Republican on the Senate Finance Committee joined the Democrats to pass the legislation 10 to 1.
A spokeswoman for the commission chairman, Kenneth D. Schisler, declined to comment on the bill, but Schisler has said the commission, in approving the rate increase, was following rules put in place before he was appointed.
Earlier yesterday, 21 Republicans parted with Ehrlich on the House bill. And two offered some of the most passionate support for a bill to appoint an independent counsel to scrutinize a pending merger between BGE's parent company, Constellation Energy Group, and a Florida power company. The measure, which the governor opposes, would give legislators the power to accept or reject the deal of more than $11 billion and take the decision temporarily out of the hands of the commission.
"This is not about Democrats or Republicans; it's about the people we all represent," said Del. Richard K. Impalleria (R-Baltimore County), prompting cheers and applause from the chamber, which approved the bill 111 to 25. The merger "is bigger than all of us," he said. "We must uncover every aspect of it."
The backing from Republicans was in sharp contrast to Ehrlich's opposition to tying up the merger. "There's obviously a lot of fear up there," Ehrlich said of the legislature. "But people need to understand that the merger allows the company to put more dollars on the table."
In a sign of some movement, Ehrlich met yesterday for the first time this session with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert). Without revealing specifics, Ehrlich said that he was "awash in numbers and spreadsheets" and that he shared with Miller elements of his approach to the problem. Miller, the governor said, "agreed with me on my number, which is light-years from 72 percent."
Miller was more reserved in his assessment, saying, "One day doesn't make a session."
Sen. E.J. Pipkin (R-Queen Anne's) took exception to the suggestion by many, including the governor, that the commissioners repeatedly briefed lawmakers about the looming rate increases.
Every time lawmakers tried to question the deregulation plan, commissioners told them, "You have to wait, you have to play this out," Pipkin said. Competition "could be right around the corner."
"Well," Pipkin said, "it's played out now, and the bill has come due."
Staff writer Matthew Mosk contributed to this report.