Exelon

Maryland energy regulators on Tuesday extended the deadline to Feb. 2 for public comment on Constellation Energy Group's plan to sell itself to Exelon Corp. The initial public comment period closed Dec. 9, but Exelon agreed a week later to a settlement with the state and Gov. Martin O'Malley over the proposed merger. As a result, the Maryland Office of People's Counsel, the consumer advocate in utility matters, said the public has not had an opportunity comment on that settlement and requested an extension for filing written comments.

Exelon Corp. and Constellation Energy Group have reached an agreement with Electricite de France, a large Constellation shareholder, for the French utility to withdraw its opposition to a proposed merger between the companies. The terms of the agreement address Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, a joint venture between Constellation and EDF that owns and operates three nuclear facilities with generating units in Maryland and New York. No payment was made by either party associated with the agreement, which reaffirms the terms of the joint venture.

As the economy has faltered over the past three years, more BGE customers have been in danger of losing their electric service because of overdue bills. Now, as BGE parent Constellation Energy Group seeks to sell itself to Exelon Corp., the state's advocate for residential customers fears that the proposed merger would hurt low-income customers' ability to receive payment assistance and other help. The Maryland Office of People's Counsel says the deal would lead to a consolidation of customer services that could cause the utility to become less responsive to the concerns of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. ratepayers.

As a BGE ratepayer, I'm strongly opposed to the Constellation-Exelon merger ("O'Malley praises Exelon-CEG deal," Dec. 16). For the third time since 2007, Constellation CEO Mayo Shattuck has been trying to engineer a buyout or merger of Constellation while doubling costs to BGE ratepayers, this time with a $13.4 million payday for himself. The primary legal responsibility of the Maryland Public Service Commission, as state Sens. E.J. Pipkin and James C. Rosepepe noted in a letter to agency, is to protect the best interests of BGE ratepayers.

What the year is likely to bring: Further housing price declines, more federal budget fights, the departure of Baltimore's only Fortune 500 corporate headquarters and computerized electricity meters that many seem to fear will read their minds and give them cancer. Happy 2012! Actually, the business news will be better than that makes it sound. The economy will continue to heal from the financial crash. People will continue to replenish savings. Housing prices will be getting closer to the bottom, and we'll be one year closer to normal unemployment and normal growth.

Exelon Corp.'s pledge to build a new Baltimore headquarters as part of its proposed buyout of Constellation Energy could alter the city's skyline, injecting fresh life into the traditional downtown business district or further expanding the waterfront corporate center east of the harbor. While Exelon is not revealing its short list of possible sites for the new building, local real estate brokers and others have identified several attractive potential locations, including some in the core business center and one between Harbor East and Fells Point.

Constellation Energy Group's plans to sell itself to Exelon Corp. cleared a regulatory hurdle Wednesday after the two companies reached a proposed settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice. The settlement, which requires court approval, calls for the companies to sell three coal plants in Maryland to alleviate market concentration in the mid-Atlantic electricity grid. Exelon and Constellation already announced plans to divest the Brandon Shores and H.A. Wagner plants in Anne Arundel County and the C.P. Crane plant in Baltimore County.

As a connoisseur of the wide open spaces between what politicians say and what politicians do, I saw promise in Gov. Martin O'Malley years ago. "Taking on BGE to stop the rate hikes" was his main 2006 campaign message, an assignment that was doomed from the first, stirring television ad. The Baltimore Gas and Electric price increase of that year was cemented in law and history, a fait accompli engineered in no small degree by O'Malley's Democratic...

In Gov. Martin O'Malley, Maryland may have the greenest governor in the country. In theory, what could be better? In reality, the green most important to most families is the green they get at the end of a pay period. A green governor and a green bureaucracy do not provide well for the economic needs of an industrialized state. In fact, renewable energy is, and will be for a long time to come, very expensive energy. The concessions from Exelon gained by our governor that favor renewable energy ("O'Malley gets Exelon to make concessions," Dec. 15)

Maryland regulators agreed Friday to postpone their decision on the $7.9 billion merger of Constellation Energy Group and Exelon Corp. until Feb. 17, giving themselves more time to evaluate a proposed settlement between the companies and Gov. Martin O'Malley. The extension of the deadline, which was initially set for Jan. 5, was expected after Exelon and Constellation agreed this week to $1 billion in concessions to gain the governor's support for the buyout. The companies promised to provide large renewable energy generation in Maryland, make significant investment for offshore wind development and add money to help low-income electricity customers.