Waiting for the next storm to hit (Baltimore Sun)
College Park Senator Jim Rosapepe and MonCo Senator Brian Frosh have asked Maryland’s Public Service Commission (PSC) to fine both Pepco and BGE $100M each to fund a “Surge Reserve” of trained workers to end long power failures.
And they have launched a web-based petition where consumers can add their names.
“The results of (the power companies’) failure to face reality and modernize are clear to all Marylanders — food rotting in refrigerators, hourly workers laid off, small businesses closed for days, and hundreds of millions of dollars in goods, services and productivity lost by our constituents,” they wrote.
In 2011, the Maryland legislature required the PSC to set reliability standards and increased the fines the PSC can impose to $25,000 per customer per day.
Senators Rosapepe and Frosh are asking Maryland citizens to sign on to their letter at either of the following website here for PEPCO customers.
The fine may also help compensate thousands of residents who lost money due to damaged food during the storm, however it raises the question of yest another rate hike from Pepco.
If Pepco is really fined such a massive amount of fines, at some point they may come to PSC and tell they cannot afford to provide their infrastructure improvement works, including selective burying of power lines work. One suggestion I have from one of my colleagues on the Council is that setting up an investment fund with the fines is probably the way to go.
Is there any other way to tackle this challenge? Please let me know what you think.
Bill Smith
Fine the homeowners whose trees blew down?
Sue Reilly
Most of the trees are on county property and the county does a poor job of maintaining them! I’ve called the county about their trees on an elderly friends property in Adelphi 10x and they still haven’t/won’t do anything about them. So fine the county. We’ll all get fined either way. We’ll see it in our property taxes or in our Pepco bills.