Higher energy costs hamper the state's ability to attract new businesses as well as existing businesses' ability to compete. Our success in the military's base realignment and closure (BRAC) process will bring 60,000 jobs and 28,000 households to the state in the near future, including 25,000 jobs on military installations. While this is good for the state's economy, it will lead to a spike in the demand for electricity at a time when we face a capacity shortage.
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski said, "The utility grid is one of the four pillars of BRAC." Yet, according to a 2008 federal report on the Department of Defense energy strategy, one of the main energy challenges the Pentagon faces is that military installations are vulnerable to extended power outages because they are almost completely dependent on fragile and vulnerable commercial grids.
The cost of doing nothing is too high for us to afford, and so we must take action.
First, as a state, we must encourage the building of transmission capacity because it can be accomplished in a relatively short time. According to the Public Service Commission, this is also the most attractive option economically. To add predictability to the process, the review of regulatory filings should be completed within a year.
Next, we must continue to conserve. Aggressive implementation of the state's ambitious EmPower Maryland program can go a long way to easing the electricity shortage.
Finally, policymakers and power suppliers need to address how to spur the market to build new generation in the state, especially from renewable sources, by resolving the uncertainty surrounding reliance on market forces. Maryland cannot afford to let the fear of whether or not the state will re-regulate deter companies from making needed infrastructure investments.
In the coming months, Maryland will be presented with opportunities to take steps that would prevent blackouts like that of Aug. 14, 2003. An informed public and a realistic and balanced review of these proposals will be needed to ensure that we have no further power outage anniversaries to observe.
H. Russell Frisby, a former chairman of the Maryland Public Service Commission, is spokesman for Marylanders for Reliable Power, a coalition of businesses, including utilities, and labor organizations. His e-mail is rfrisby@fh-law.com.
