Md. Rate Relief Bill Became a 'Tough Sell'

Senators Feared Compromise on Electricity Increases Would Repeat Problems Wrought by Deregulation

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, left, and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. look on as Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., far right, signs bills. (By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)

The General Assembly had adjourned an hour earlier, but House Speaker Michael E. Busch was still fuming, his face flushed as he sat in his office shelling peanuts by the handful.

"I cannot believe this. We worked on this for a month, and then to fall short," he said early yesterday. "How does that happen?"

In the final minutes of the legislative session Monday, a bill that would have provided some relief from soaring electricity rates this summer died suddenly in the Senate, falling one vote short on a procedural move.

The failure meant that Busch and every other lawmaker would have to return to their constituents -- in an election year, no less -- without a plan to blunt rate increases that could raise electric bills as much as 72 percent. In essence, it left customers with no relief and lawmakers with no leverage.

Busch was incredulous at his counterpart, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), the storied vote-counter and master of his chamber. "Miller couldn't move a bill? Gimme a break," he said.

Miller, for his part, said it was all a matter of votes, that his typically loyal senators simply couldn't abide a compromise in the bill that left the utility regulators on the state's Public Service Commission in place for more than a year.

"When it came down to the end, my members didn't want to keep the same people who rubber-stamped these rate hikes," he said after a bill-signing ceremony yesterday. "Regulars I can normally count on said, 'Look, I can't go with this bill.' It was a tough sell."

The compromise to hold rate increases to 15 percent for Pepco and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers had been worked out during four weeks of talks among Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., Democratic legislative leaders and representatives from BGE's parent company, Constellation Energy Group.

The company offered $60 million a year for 10 years to help phase in the 72 percent rate increases. Pepco agreed to allow its ratepayers in Montgomery and Prince George's counties to phase in a 38.5 percent increase as well. In exchange, the General Assembly would have dropped its plan to immediately disband the utilities commission and block a pending merger between Constellation and a Florida utility.

The governor said yesterday he would pick up where the legislature left off and determine if it would be necessary to bring lawmakers back for a special session or if he could strike a deal on his own. "These hours of negotiations were not wasted," he said. "We do have a framework for where to go from here."

A day earlier, everything had appeared on track, as the parties huddled around a horseshoe of tables at 7:30 Monday morning in the governor's ornate reception room.

But Sen. Philip C. Jimeno, an Anne Arundel Democrat who is a close ally of Miller's, said his first inkling that the deal was in trouble came at a caucus meeting two hours later. After laying out the details of the deal, Miller said something that made it immediately clear he was not putting his full weight behind this bill.