Utility Industry

WASHINGTON - The 30 companies that own most of the dirtiest power plants in the country, and their trade association, have raised $6.6 million for President Bush and the Republican National Committee since 1999, and were given relief from pollution regulations that would have cost them billions of dollars, according to a new analysis. Ten utility industry officials were so good at fund raising for the president that they were named Rangers or Pioneers by his campaign for bringing in at least $200,000 or $100,000, respectively, according to the analysis by Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, and the Environmental Integrity Project, an environmental watchdog organization.

Think your BGE bill is high? Meet the Glaun family of Owings Mills. Their electricity bill last month topped $900. And that was a major improvement over January, when they had to pay a whopping $1,151. "It's quite embarrassing," said Kim Glaun, who says she turns off lights in empty rooms and lowers the thermostat at night. "We feel like there's a big hole in our house." Turns out, their house is full of little holes that appeared last week as purple splotches captured by an infrared camera that "sees" invisible cold pockets - evidence that chilly air is invading a home as warmth escapes.

CHANCES ARE you've got mercury pollution. Most people in the Baltimore metropolitan area probably do, thanks to the presence of the Brandon Shores and Wagner power plants that spew 670 tons of mercury into the air every year. Mercury is a neurotoxin, particularly dangerous to children, that attacks the brain and nervous system. Federal scientists estimate that one in six women of child-bearing age has enough mercury in her body to put her offspring at risk. Technology is available to drastically reduce mercury emissions, but utility companies don't want to spend the money to install it. So President Bush voided a regulation that would have required roughly a 90 percent emission reduction by 2007 and replaced it with a much weaker requirement that won't take effect until at least 2018.

The chairman of the Maryland Public Service Commission regularly consulted with a utility industry lobbyist on how to keep an electricity deregulation plan on track in the face of a huge rate increase, e-mails obtained yesterday by The Sun show. The messages from February 2005 show how lobbyist Carville B. Collins and Public Service Commission Chairman Kenneth D. Schisler shared sensitive strategy and discussed personnel decisions within the agency. The messages raise questions about the independence of an agency charged with regulating prices set by power companies.

Allegheny Power System, Inc., the chief electric utility for Western Maryland and the surrounding region, said yesterday that it has signed an agreement to merge with Duquesne Light Co., which serves the Pittsburgh area, in a deal worth an estimated $2.6 billion.If approved by state and federal regulators, the merger would create a utility serving 2 million customers in five states -- Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia and Ohio -- with assets of $10.6 billion."This is not a surprise to the industry," said Thomas E. Hamlin, a utilities analyst with Wheat First Butcher Singer, a Richmond, Va.-based securities firm.

In a vote that could signal the fate of organized labor in the electric utility industry of the future, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. workers overwhelmingly rejected a unionization drive by more than a 2-to-1 margin.The 1,864-to-790 tally, concluding a two-day election held by the National Labor Relations Board, ensures that BGE will retain the nonunion status that has endured at the nation's oldest utility for nearly two centuries."I consider this to be a major victory for our employees, our customers and for our future," BGE Chairman and Chief Executive Christian H. Poindexter said.

Joining a trend in which utility companies are increasingly seeking alternative sources of revenue, Potomac Electric Power Co. and a New Jersey partner plan to offer local and long-distance phone service as well as dial-up Internet access as early as next month in the Washington area.Pepco President John M. Derrick Jr. said yesterday that the utility and RCN Corp. of Princeton, N.J., will invest $150 million apiece over the next three years to set up fiber-optic networks to offer cable television and high-speed Internet access as well as their phone and dial-up services.

Conectiv Inc., the Wilmington, Del.-based utility that serves parts of Harford County and most of Maryland's Eastern Shore, announced plans yesterday for a major restructuring that includes selling some power plants, slashing its dividend and buying back 12 percent of its common stock.The company said it would also lay off 250 of its 3,700 workers over the next 18 months.The moves, prompted in part by the recent deregulation of the utility industry, are expected to generate about $1 billion in cash that would be used to expand the company's telecommunications business.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens cautioned state legislators yesterday that passing a tax cut to help the state's electric utility companies might rob the county of the equivalent of 62 teacher salaries a year.Her comments came after the senate Budget and Taxation Committee held a hearing on a bill that would cut taxes for Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and other utilities to help them compete with out-of-state utilities that soon will be able to sell electricity in Maryland.The tax break could cost Anne Arundel County $2.5 million a year in local business property taxes paid by BGE's facilities in Anne Arundel County, officials said.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., anticipating vast changes in the utility industry of the future, yesterday announced a corporate marriage with the Potomac Electric Power Co. that will create the nation's ninth-largest power company.The merger agreement -- the largest ever between two utilities -- will result in an entity with $15 billion in assets that serves a population of 4.5 million in Maryland and Washington when completed in early 1997.As part of the stock-swap transaction, BGE intends to relocate its 180-year-old corporate headquarters to the Annapolis area from downtown Baltimore, the largest in a series of symbolic losses that have cut into the city's deteriorating professional and corporate base.

CHANCES ARE you've got mercury pollution. Most people in the Baltimore metropolitan area probably do, thanks to the presence of the Brandon Shores and Wagner power plants that spew 670 tons of mercury into the air every year. Mercury is a neurotoxin, particularly dangerous to children, that attacks the brain and nervous system. Federal scientists estimate that one in six women of child-bearing age has enough mercury in her body to put her offspring at risk. Technology is available to drastically reduce mercury emissions, but utility companies don't want to spend the money to install it. So President Bush voided a regulation that would have required roughly a 90 percent emission reduction by 2007 and replaced it with a much weaker requirement that won't take effect until at least 2018.

WASHINGTON - The 30 companies that own most of the dirtiest power plants in the country, and their trade association, have raised $6.6 million for President Bush and the Republican National Committee since 1999, and were given relief from pollution regulations that would have cost them billions of dollars, according to a new analysis. Ten utility industry officials were so good at fund raising for the president that they were named Rangers or Pioneers by his campaign for bringing in at least $200,000 or $100,000, respectively, according to the analysis by Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, and the Environmental Integrity Project, an environmental watchdog organization.

FOR investors, an electric utility stock once was as predictable as flipping on a light switch. Investors could rely on steady growth and healthy dividends just as they could count on the flick of a switch to light up a room. But that was before deregulation, which began shaking up the industry five years ago and will likely continue doing so for years ahead. "They certainly aren't `widow and orphan' stocks anymore," said Phil Cook, a Torrance, Calif., financial planner, referring to the name given to safe stocks that pay high dividends.

Orion Power Holdings Inc., a Baltimore-based company that buys and operates power plants nationwide, filed yesterday to sell shares to the public. The company started as a joint venture between the New York investment firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and an affiliate of Constellation Energy Group Inc., parent of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Since its inception in March 1998, Orion Power Holdings has invested more than $3 billion in 80 power plants with...

Conectiv Inc., the Wilmington, Del.-based utility that serves parts of Harford County and most of Maryland's Eastern Shore, announced plans yesterday for a major restructuring that includes selling some power plants, slashing its dividend and buying back 12 percent of its common stock.The company said it would also lay off 250 of its 3,700 workers over the next 18 months.The moves, prompted in part by the recent deregulation of the utility industry, are expected to generate about $1 billion in cash that would be used to expand the company's telecommunications business.

Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens cautioned state legislators yesterday that passing a tax cut to help the state's electric utility companies might rob the county of the equivalent of 62 teacher salaries a year.Her comments came after the senate Budget and Taxation Committee held a hearing on a bill that would cut taxes for Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and other utilities to help them compete with out-of-state utilities that soon will be able to sell electricity in Maryland.The tax break could cost Anne Arundel County $2.5 million a year in local business property taxes paid by BGE's facilities in Anne Arundel County, officials said.

Maryland's Public Service Commission took a first step yesterday that could lead to competition in the sale of electricity, a move that could have tremendous future impact on the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and other local energy providers.The PSC set guidelines to encourage wholesale competition, which provides for utilities to compete within power pools and allows large commercial and industrial users to purchase power from numerous sources.But the regulatory body rejected the idea that in the near term, consumers should be able to choose from various local utilities ,, on a retail level, in much the same way long-distance telephone companies compete aggressively for customers.

Experts agree that federally inspired deregulation will vastly alter the utility industry of the future. As a result, once-staid utility companies are beginning to pair up in anticipation of fierce competition for customer bases and to offer new services. In other words, in the brave new utility world, only the largest and strongest will survive.In the Baltimore area, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and Potomac Electric Power Co. last September cited a desire to "control their own destiny" as part of the rationale for forming Constellation Energy Corp.

Maryland new-car dealers closed out last year with a rally that brought full year sales very close to the 1997 level, according to figures released yesterday by the Motor Vehicle Administration.New-vehicle sales jumped 9.8 percent in December over sales the previous December, pushing sales for the full year to 328,132. That represents a decline of less than 1 percent from total sales in 1997.Bruce Rogers, president of Sherwood on the Shore, a Ford and Lincoln Mercury dealership in Berlin, Worcester County, and a director of the Maryland New Car and Truck Dealers Association, said sales were particularly strong in the last week of December.

With all the wariness of utility workers approaching a downed power line, Maryland lawmakers are steeling themselves to take on the issue of bringing competition to the electrical power industry.Deregulation of the industry, an idea that the General Assembly has danced around for the past two years, would affect the pocketbook interests of every Marylander who doesn't live in a cave. It's an endeavor that is breathtaking in its implications and mind-boggling in its complexity."It's a dull, technical issue -- except it involves billions of dollars over the next 20 years," said Del. Dan K. Morhaim, a Baltimore County Democrat.