Deal Secures $170 Credit For Customers of BGE

"Maryland was getting a lot of negative national attention as a result of these disagreements," said Glen Thomas of the P3 Group, a consortium of power companies in the mid-Atlantic.

Under the agreement, the company will assume the costs to decommission the two existing Calvert Cliffs reactors starting in 2034, perhaps the biggest long-term gain for electricity customers. BGE transferred the nuclear facility and its other power plants to Constellation in 2000, but customers, not shareholders, were on the hook to dismantle it. Customers have paid $920 million to a decommissioning fund through their bills. But the PSC disputed the future cost in recent months, contending that customers would pay in excess of $1.5 billion if they kept contributing through 2034, a windfall for Constellation.

O'Malley and lawmakers said yesterday that the agreement does not preclude any attempts by the legislature to adopt reregulation of the power industry.

"Issues regarding reregulation are still very much on the plate," Larsen said.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said O'Malley "made out very well politically" by announcing a deal for customers. But he said the "financial benefits aren't going to be enough to stop high utility costs."

Sean Dobson of Progressive Maryland, an advocacy group, said O'Malley is "playing a bad hand as best as he can."

"Given the fact that the 1999 law was a total and absolute giveaway to the power companies, it's the best he could negotiate."