Constellation Energy

The woman who says she represents North American Power is not telling the truth about the benefits of buying electricity from her company. "You can save up to 10, 15, 20 percent of your bill, depending on your usage," she says in a telemarketing call to my house. But the rate she eventually quotes is only about 7 percent less than the standard price offered by Baltimore Gas & Electric — something the average customer would have no way of knowing. And of course the percentage savings won't vary even if my "usage" goes up to that of a steel mill.

Baltimore made the newest Fortune 500 list by the skin of its teeth — with a company that was based here last year but is now part of an out-of-state concern. Constellation Energy Group, which merged with Chicago-based Exelon Corp. in March, is No. 199 on Fortune magazine's 2012 list of the country's largest companies. The list is calculated using 2011 information. Five other companies from Maryland made the list, all from Montgomery County: defense contractor Lockheed Martin (No. 58)

A deal to transfer Constellation Energy Group's stake in a nuclear development company to its French partner, EDF Group, closed Wednesday, according to documents filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last month, Constellation agreed to sell its 50 percent stake in Unistar Nuclear Energy to EDF for $140 million, giving EDF sole ownership of the joint venture and its plans to develop a third unit at Calvert Cliffs in Southern Maryland. The deal called for EDF to transfer 3.5 million shares it owns, valued around $110 million, to Constellation and give up its seat on the Constellation board.

For manipulating energy markets Constellation Energy has just paid the highest penalty in history - $245 million - to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("Merger, record fine OK'd," March 13). That's more than all previous penalties combined. While the media and their audience are distracted by sensational stories, real stories about issues that impact our daily lives seem to be ignored. While we pay higher energy rates, and while churches like the one I serve help poor people keep their lights on, Constellation Energy manipulates energy markets, cuts deals, and no one is going to jail.

Two state senators have asked Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler to investigate executive pay at Constellation Energy Group and whether CEO Mayo A. Shattuck III's compensation package amounts to an unlawful waste of assets shouldered by customers. Noting the national backlash against "excessive" executive compensation, Democratic Sens. Jamie Raskin of Montgomery County and James Brochin of Baltimore County asked Thursday for a legal opinion on whether Gansler or any government official has the authority to void pay arrangements for Shattuck, or whether the General Assembly can restrict his pay. "It seems like excessive greed for a public utility," Brochin said.

Mayo A. Shattuck III has now publicly acknowledged the ruin of Constellation Energy and accepted responsibility for the downfall of the energy corporation ("Tough measures," Feb. 19). But his promise to "steer this great company back to health with renewed growth" rings hollow after his leadership drove expansion and irresponsible deal-making that have severely harmed Constellation's viability. And now, after being forced to sell corporate assets at fire-sale prices and threatening to raise energy costs for consumers already crushed by economic conditions and Constellation's greed, Mr. Shattuck feels humility?

NOTES ABOUT your money and investments:Baltimore Gas and Electric stock, now Constellation Energy Group Inc., is ranked Group 2 -- Good-to-High Quality -- in Argus Research Electric Utility Rankings. Potomac Electric Power Co., our neighbor to the south, is listed under Group 1 -- High Quality."You don't have to take Social Security at age 65. You get larger benefits if you apply later, whether working or retired." (Kiplinger Washington Letter)"A charitable remainder trust is useful in financial and estate planning.

DES MOINES, Iowa - It would hardly be a shock if John Perkins had beefs with MidAmerican Energy Co. After all, he is Iowa's consumer advocate. His job is to look out for the utility's 630,000 electric customers and 550,000 natural gas users statewide. Maybe the real surprise is this: Perkins has high praise for the Warren Buffett-led utility, a unit of MidAmerican Energy Holdings, which on Friday signed a $4.7 billion agreement to buy Constellation Energy Group. "They play very tough.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and Potomac Electric Power Co. yesterday selected Constellation Energy Corp. as the name for their combined operations after completion of a pending merger in March 1997.Officials of the two utilities said they picked the Constellation moniker -- which BGE has used since 1985 for its various real estate, energy and investment subsidiaries -- partly because of its nebulous nature."We've chosen an identity that is not geographically confining and will serve us well in our franchised operating territories and beyond," BGE Chairman and Chief Executive Christian H. Poindexter, who is slated to become chief executive of the merged entity, said in a prepared statement.

Constellation Energy Group Inc. said yesterday that it has completed the sale of its 41.5 percent stake in Corporate Office Properties Trust, a Columbia real estate investment trust, as part of a strategy to focus on its core energy business. The Baltimore energy company, which was COPT 's largest shareholder, sold 8.9 million common shares at $12.04 per share. COPT also issued another 2 million shares. Constellation announced last month that it planned to sell its COPT shares. Shareholders and analysts had complained that the real estate interests distracted and sometimes hurt the company.

The name "Constellation Energy" will still be around. The energy trading firm will still be doing much the same thing it ever has in a large, new building on Baltimore's waterfront. It will have somewhat fewer employees, but it will, at least for the next several years, maintain its status as one of the region's largest corporate philanthropists. And it's not as if Constellation was universally beloved around town anyway; despite its many contributions to the local economy and charitable scene, the company was often derided, as was its CEO, Mayo A. Shattuck III. So why should we mourn the sale of Baltimore's last Fortune 500 company to Chicago-based Exelon?

Granted, the announced move of Constellation Energy/Exelon's new Baltimore headquarters around the Inner Harbor's northeast corner is not a quantum jump. Constellation's present location at 750 E.Pratt St. is already on the edge of downtown, furnishing walk-up patrons for restaurants in Little Italy and other eastern neighborhoods. The new HQ will be less than a mile away. But it will pull more energy from the downtown core and shift the balance of activity further eastward.

Gov. Martin O'Malley may not have gotten Exelon to bump up the $100 rate credit it promised to Baltimore Gas and Electric customers as part of its proposed merger with Constellation Energy, but he secured concessions that will be far more valuable to Maryland ratepayers in the long run. The settlement the governor plans to announce Thursday includes a vastly greater commitment to renewable energy and other new power generation than Exelon had ever...

They feel forgotten in the expensive and lengthy proceeding to sell Constellation Energy, Baltimore's last Fortune 500 company, to Chicago-based Exelon. If the merger goes through, 425 employees at several Maryland power generation plants owned by Constellation would find themselves working not for Exelon but for some unknown third party. For all the uncertainty associated with the deal, everybody else at Constellation knows their future employer's identity and can try to draw conclusions.

You might have seen the news footage of the guy in the orange construction vest who a couple of weeks back angrily yelled at the Occupy Baltimore encampment that he was "working his butt off to support you guys," apparently referring to the unemployed among them. If he really wanted to protest where his tax money may be going, he could have walked a couple of blocks from McKeldin Square. The findings of a new study indicate that because of corporate tax breaks, rebates and loopholes, many Fortune 500 companies pay little or no federal income taxes on their profits.

Constellation Energy's second-largest shareholder and a partner in its nuclear business grilled the Baltimore company's chairman and chief executive, Mayo A. Shattuck III, about his compensation and proposed role at Exelon Corp. during the second day of regulatory hearings on the $7.9 billion merger of the two energy giants. EDF Group opposes the merger and has had a strained relationship with Constellation since last fall, when the Baltimore utility pulled out of plans to develop a proposed third nuclear unit at Calvert Cliffs in Southern Maryland.

In a move to increase its market as an energy supplier to large commercial and industrial customers, Constellation Energy Group Inc. said yesterday that it has purchased two Midwest energy marketing companies from Wisconsin Energy Corp. The Baltimore utility acquired Blackhawk Energy Services, which provides natural gas and electricity to customers in Illinois, and Kaztex Energy Management, which provides natural gas to customers in Wisconsin. Financial terms were not disclosed. The acquisitions will give Constellation an additional 1,100 commercial, industrial and wholesale customers, and fits with its strategy of supplying energy nationally to large customers.

An Anne Arundel County family has filed a lawsuit against Maryland's largest power company, contending that a leaky coal-ash waste dump contaminated their neighborhood's drinking water. At a news conference yesterday in Gambrills, Gayle K. Queen, an education counselor, said her husband, David, died of kidney failure last year after drinking water laced with lead, arsenic and other pollutants. Five or six other people in the neighborhood also died of suspicious causes, she said. "The people in this neighborhood are anxious every day if the water they drink every day is safe or toxic," said one of her attorneys, Wayne K. Curry, the former Prince George's County executive, now with William H. Murphy Jr.'s law firm in Baltimore.

As Maryland energy regulators prepare to review next week Constellation Energy Group's plan to sell itself to Exelon Corp., the Baltimore energy company posted Friday a $74 million profit in the third quarter. The Baltimore company earned 36 cents per share for the three months ending Sept. 30, reversing a loss from a year ago. A year earlier, the company reported a net loss of $1.4 million, or $6.99 per share, after taking large write-downs to reflect the reduced value of its nuclear power business and the cancellation of its nuclear development venture with French partner EDF. The company said third-quarter earnings were hurt in part by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s cleanup costs related to Hurricane Irene.