BGE fallout won’t hurt O’Malley

GOP sees rate hike as rallying cry in 2010

And the next election is eons away in political terms. A lot can happen between now and 2010.

‘‘You saw [the governor] make a lot of it in his campaign, but the next election isn’t for three more years,” said pollster Patrick Gonzales, president of Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies of Annapolis.

‘‘It was an issue last year and probably didn’t help [Republican Gov. Robert L.] Ehrlich a whole lot even though he wasn’t responsible when it started in 1999,” Gonzales said. ‘‘My guess is the voters aren’t going to hold Governor O’Malley responsible for whatever angst they have over the rates.”

On Wednesday, O’Malley’s reconstituted Public Service Commission let stand a 50 percent price increase for 1.1 million Baltimore Gas and Electric ratepayers in Central Maryland. The rate hike goes into effect June 1.

‘‘In reality, [the PSC’s] hands were tied a bit by decisions made in past years that bind us under current law,” O’Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said. ‘‘Maryland consumers are smart. They understand that decisions made over the last four years have led to the current situation.”

Despite O’Malley’s campaign promises and the fact that he appointed four of the PSC’s five members since taking office in January, ratepayers will see the increase as inevitable, said Matthew A. Crenson, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. ‘‘The only person who has spoken out about it has been the state Republican chairman,” he said.

In a message posted on the Maryland Republican Party’s Web site, Chairman James Pelura says the GOP will remind voters in 2010 that O’Malley broke his campaign pledge to protect ratepayers. ‘‘Martin O’Malley is all show and no substance,” the Web site says. ‘‘... Last year, O’Malley filed a lawsuit to stop then-Governor Ehrlich’s plan to slow the rate increase, forcing this drastic 50-percent increase. O’Malley’s pledge to hold the line on rate increases and help working families was a false campaign promise. His lack of visibility on this issue shows he will do and say whatever it takes to get elected. Unfortunately, this may be lights out for many Marylanders.”

Other Republicans also accused the O’Malley administration of playing politics.

‘‘You’re only given a certain amount of capital with the electorate as a politician and if you start losing that, it’s hard to get it back,” said Sen. Allan H. Kittleman (R-Dist. 9) of West Friendship. ‘‘This is just one instance of what I fear will be many where Governor O’Malley and Lt. Gov. [Anthony G.] Brown have said one thing and not delivered.”

O’Malley’s spokesman fired back.

‘‘We are currently engaged in cleaning up after four years of failed leadership by Governor Ehrlich and a Public Service Commission that was more interested in securing tickets to sporting events and hunting trips than advocating for Maryland consumers,” Abbruzzese said. ‘‘After two months, we have a new Public Service Commission in place that is professional, competent and determined to serve the public and determined to move forward.”

It will be difficult for Republicans to claim to be the consumers’ protectors when they were willing to let a 72-percent rate increase occur under their watch, Crenson said.

‘‘It’s not like in the previous administration. [O’Malley’s PSC] weren’t running back and forth between the governor’s office and the energy representatives,” Crenson said.

Instead, O’Malley’s PSC held public hearings that provided transparency in the process, he said. ‘‘It’s not going to win [O’Malley] any points, but it gives him a measure of cover.”

G. Keith Haller, president of Potomac Inc. of Bethesda, said he doubts ‘‘voters will somehow blame Governor O’Malley for being the cause of the problem or not doing enough to turn around a decision [that was inevitable]. O’Malley is still in a political honeymoon, so this is about the best political time for a new governor to face the public’s wrath over a huge rate increase.”

Jennifer E. Duffy, managing editor of The Cook Political Report, said voters in 2010 are unlikely to remember that O’Malley had made fighting the BGE rate increase a campaign promise last year.

A lot of the fallout will depend on ‘‘if the rest of his term’s perfect or does this become the foundation of the case against him?” Duffy said. ‘‘Somebody is out there putting it in their file.”

Others said O’Malley had little recourse to prevent the rate hike brought on when artificial price caps set by the legislature in 1999 expired last summer.

‘‘To think that anyone could wave a magic wand to keep energy prices from increasing is foolish,” said Sen. Robert J. Garagiola (D-Dist. 15) of Germantown, who predicted that elected officials would suffer only if rates continue to spike sharply. ‘‘People are going to judge the governor and the legislature on the four-year term, not the first six months.”

Garagiola said he expects more modest rate increases in future years as the state and federal governments seek cheaper alternative energy sources.

Read the Decision

Go to www.psc.state.md.us⁄psc and ‘‘What’s new on our web site.” The BGEdecision is Case No. 9099.