Roger Berliner on Tuesday said he and others urged County Executive Isiah Leggett not to agree to a settlement with Pepco and Exelon over the utility companies’ merger bid.
Berliner, the District 1 Council member and an energy attorney, said the Council told Leggett and his team a few weeks ago that the proposed settlement agreement didn’t do enough to ensure that Exelon won’t raise electricity rates in Montgomery County.
Some fear the Chicago-based utility is purchasing Pepco Holdings Inc. to help finance its large fleet of nuclear power plants, which experts say are losing money because of lower natural gas costs.
“Our ratepayers should not be Exelon’s piggy bank and our ratepayers should not be pawns in Exelon’s desire to prop up its nuclear power plants,” Berliner said.
In the settlement announced last week, Exelon and Pepco promised Montgomery County some money for low-income ratepayers, new energy efficiency programs, five megawatts of solar power generation and recreational trails along some of its transmission lines.
In exchange, the county will support the Exelon-Pepco merger bid in front of the Maryland Public Service Commission, expected to rule on the merger this spring.
“Without violating our closed session protocols, I think it is appropriate to share that to a person, we urged him not to do so,” Berliner said of the Council’s meeting with Leggett and county attorneys. “Not because the deal being offered was a bad deal. It was simply the wrong deal.”
Attorney General Brian Frosh, the Maryland Energy Administration and the Office of People’s Counsel have all told the PSC that the Exelon-Pepco merger is not in the public interest.
Berliner argued the merger didn’t meet that standard as part of the Coalition for Utility Reform, a group of local elected officials, energy experts and environmentalists.
The Coalition claimed Exelon’s reliance on nuclear power generation has led the company to oppose renewable energy initiatives and doesn’t bode well for an increase in renewable technologies from Pepco.
The county’s settlement agreement with Exelon (which also includes Prince George’s County) did have a requirement that the company achieve top-quartile reliability in three years, something the companies had already promised to do earlier this month.
“I must say that I have never accepted the notion that we need Exelon’s sophistication to achieve that objective,” Berliner said. “We simply needed a stronger commitment from Pepco.”
The $6.8 billion merger, which would put all of Pepco Holding Inc.’s utilities in four states and D.C. under the control of Exelon, has been approved by federal regulators and regulators in New Jersey and Virginia.
Berliner made the comments while introducing a Council resolution against the county’s settlement.
“And because the county’s settlement is being pitched to the Maryland Public Service Commission as strong evidence that the merger is in the public interest, it is important that our Council, who actually is the policy arm of the county under our Charter, sets the record straight,” Berliner said. “There are miles to go before this merger is in the public interest.”
