BGE

THE PROBLEM: A tree has been leaning over power lines in Towson for years. THE BACKSTORY: Stan Kluckowski has been watching the trees grow with more and more trepidation each year. The Towson resident said he began calling about a leaning tree with branches that hang over the power lines on the utility pole in his backyard, which borders the Goucher College campus. He said he called Goucher and that staff there told him the tree lay within Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s utility right of way. He called BGE, and someone told him the pole belonged to Verizon.

Seton Hill residents and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. yesterday settled their bitter two-year dispute over the appearance of a new electric substation in the historic neighborhood. The compromise design requires BGE to completely rebuild an existing brick compound, spending at least $3 million more than required by a plan presented to the Baltimore Planning Commission last month and fiercely opposed by area residents. "I'm not jumping up and down for joy," said Mico Milanovic, a member of the Seton Hill Community Association.

The rigging of the electricity marketplace to enrich power companies and executives looks even worse than we thought. Just as Maryland was getting shocked by higher kilowatt prices, grid managers have allowed extra profit for generation outfits such as Constellation Energy, parent of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. The bonus, whose magnitude was revealed Friday, might eventually cost the typical BGE household $10 a month or more and add hundreds of...

Now that Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. has the go-ahead to raise electricity rates by 50 percent next month, Marylanders also have a choice: Pay the full increase right away or spread it out under a deferral plan. What to do? Area economists think the decision is pretty clear: "It's a no-interest loan, everybody should take it. ... It's a no-brainer," said Richard P. Clinch, director of economic research at the University of Baltimore's Jacob France Institute. "It's basically free money.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. officials have agreed to stop cutting trees along Cromwell Bridge Road until an independent contractor assesses the project's environmental impact, according to a county councilman who met with representatives of the utility. The project, which involves removing all trees from a 66-foot-wide swath along a three-mile stretch of the road, was halted last week after residents and elected officials expressed concerns about erosion and damage to a nearby stream.

The sign on the wall read: "Look what's happening at Western Community Action Center." Underneath sat the largest cooler available in stores, crammed with ice and bottles of water. And yesterday, as area temperatures climbed to a high of 97 degrees at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and 100 in the city, the water was indeed the main thing happening at the center. With the addition of the cooler, the center was transformed from an ordinary office into a "cooling center" run by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, where the hot and weary could stop in for a rest, a bottle of water and some paper towels to mop up all the sweat.

For years, residents have called the brick compound in Seton Hill a "fortress," a physical barrier between their historic community and its neighbors, Bolton Hill and Mount Vernon. The high-walled, khaki-colored brick structure squeezed between North Paca and North Eutaw streets, just north of St. Mary's Park, has been there for decades. Now, BGE plans to build an electric substation inside -- one the company says is necessary to accommodate the city's growing power needs. But residents say that if BGE plans to make such a permanent footprint in their community, the outside walls of the compound should be redesigned to be neighborhood-friendly and in sync with Baltimore's plans to create visually appealing, pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares.

O'Malley takes oath as governor Martin O'Malley was sworn in as the state's 61st governor. He promised "a new day in Maryland" marked by bipartisan respect and a fresh resolve to improve the lives of state residents. Dixon sworn in as mayor Pledging to deliver a more cohesive government to City Hall and cleaner streets to city neighborhoods, Sheila Dixon was formally sworn in as Baltimore's 48th mayor in an inauguration that celebrated recent progress but repeatedly acknowledged the daunting challenges ahead.

Michael Sarbanes, a candidate for City Council president, plans to unveil a proposal today that he says would promote energy-efficiency measures to help residents reduce the impact of higher electricity rates, while also creating jobs. Sarbanes, a longtime community activist making his first run for public office, was to announce his proposal this morning, followed by a demonstration of an energy audit at a private residence. The proposal would encourage people to conduct an energy-efficiency audit on their homes, identifying passages where air escapes and targeting areas for sealing and insulation.

Hoping to inject more competition into a part of Maryland's energy market, Gov. Martin O'Malley asked the Public Service Commission yesterday to determine whether the state's program to provide electricity for the poor could use its market power to secure lower rates. O'Malley said in a letter to PSC Chairman Steven B. Larsen that he believes that aggregating the purchasing power of the 93,000 low-income clients of Maryland's Electric Universal Service Program could save them about 8 percent on their rates.

Members of the Maryland congressional delegation and the U.S. secretary of housing and urban development joined Friday to congratulate Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. for receiving $200 million in federal stimulus grants to support efforts to modernize the electricity grid in Maryland. The U.S. Department of Energy announced this week that BGE received among the largest subsidies to help provide about 2 million "smart meters" and other technology to display real-time data about consumers' energy usage in homes and businesses.

Maryland regulators approved Constellation Energy Group's nuclear joint venture with a French utility Friday, adding conditions - including a one-time $100 credit for each Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customer - that fell short of concessions Gov. Martin O'Malley had sought for the deal. Besides imposing the residential ratepayer credits totaling $110.5 million, the Public Service Commission placed terms on the transaction that would protect BGE from future financial troubles of its parent company.

WASHINGTON - -Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. officials said a $200 million federal subsidy awarded to the company Tuesday would lower the cost to customers of an ambitious project to provide every household with an advanced "smart meter" that will enable them to better control energy use. BGE plans to install 2 million of the devices between 2010 and 2014 and charge customers for the upgrade. The smart meters would give BGE's residential and commercial customers hour-by-hour information about energy pricing and enable them to cut back at times of peak costs.

William F. Logan Sr., a retired Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. electrical engineer who was active in his church, died Oct. 5 of esophageal cancer at his Loch Raven Village home. He was 79. Mr. Logan was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated in 1948 from Fort Hamilton High School. He served in the Army in communications from 1951 to 1954. In 1956, he moved to Baltimore to go to work for the Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River. Two years later, he joined BGE. While working at BGE during the day, Mr. Logan earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering studying at night at the Johns Hopkins University.

The problem:: A smelly utility pole languished in Patterson Park. The backstory:: John Lundquist noticed a utility pole lying in the park across the street from his Ellwood Avenue home, as well as several others on Linwood Avenue, in July. The poles on Linwood disappeared after a few weeks, but "this one across the street just sat and sat and sat." He called 311 to report it. He spotted a tag on the pole indicating that it belonged to Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., so he also called the utility.

Focus on efficiency, not nuclear plant Sunday's Sun editorial claims the Constellation Energy Group-Electricit? de France deal will help ratepayers, in part because EDF might construct a new nuclear reactor that will increase Maryland's supply of electricity ("PSC's power play," Sept. 20). The cost of a new nuclear reactor is in the billions, and the electricity generated by the reactor may not be available for a decade. The problem is that ratepayers are suffering high energy costs now. The best and most immediate solution to our high energy costs is investment in energy efficiency.

The Calvert County Board of County Commissioners has gone on record numerous times in support of the proposed expansion at Constellation Energy's Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. We take the decision to support the expansion seriously. We have weighed the impact of the project on our community based upon the plant's 30-year safe operating history, and we have considered the energy issues facing Maryland and the nation. The board testified before the Maryland Public Service Commission Sept.

This week the Maryland Public Service Commission began a public hearing into Constellation Energy's proposed $4.5 billion sale of half its nuclear assets to a huge French company, EDF. As currently proposed, the deal appears to be a good one for Constellation's CEO and his shareholders but presents enormous risks and no real benefits for more than 1.1 million ratepayers who depend on BGE to provide a vital service at reasonable rates. The PSC and the state have taken an active role in this proceeding not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because we have a legal obligation to do so. If not, we would abdicate our responsibility to protect the interests of BGE customers from Constellation - the same company that brought BGE to the verge of bankruptcy almost one year ago due to speculative trading practices and a massive $1.8 billion accounting error, while simultaneously bestowing an $87 million golden parachute on its CEO, according to a 2009 SEC filing.

The problem:: A persistent gas leak on an Essex street troubles neighbors. The back story:: The tarps draped across the entrances to the Rein family home on North Stuart Street serve more of a practical than decorative purpose. The Reins put up the plastic sheeting to prevent gas fumes leaking from a main on the street from entering their house. Judith Rein and her family had been calling since Aug. 2 to report the smell of gas in the neighborhood. Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. workers arrived several times to measure gas levels, and they replaced some lines to individual houses and some meters, but the gas continued to permeate the Rein house.

Large supplies and the poor economy have pushed natural gas prices down to seven-year lows, which might prompt consumers to consider a fixed-price contract from an alternate supplier before the winter heating season begins - especially if they still remember last winter's sky-high bills, analysts say. But this year, consumers will be placing bets not only on the weather but also on how quickly the economy recovers. "There's the expectation that even a modest economic recovery will boost natural gas prices," said Addison Armstrong, director of market research for Tradition Energy.