ROCKVILLE—Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, had the following statement in response to the Montgomery County Council’s passage of a resolution this morning finding that a proposed county settlement on the Exelon-Pepco merger falls short of protecting the public interest:
“Today, the Montgomery County Council joined a growing list of opponents – including the Maryland Attorney General – in criticizing the major inadequacies of the proposed merger between energy companies Exelon and Pepco. The Council rightly pointed out, with leadership from Councilmember Roger Berliner, that Exelon has not offered the Montgomery County government and the rest of the state nearly enough clean energy to serve the ‘public interest.’ CCAN could not agree more.
“In an era of rapid climate change – with Antarctic ice vanishing and extreme weather affecting all Marylanders – the public interest can only be met if Exelon commits to becoming a national leader in wind and solar power development as well as energy efficiency. Instead, Exelon clearly intends to prop up its aging and unprofitable nuclear energy fleet by expanding its base of paying customers to include the entire Pepco service territory. This is not good for the economy, ratepayers, or the environment.
“We commend the Montgomery County Council for demanding that Exelon do more as part of this proposed merger. To its credit, Exelon has pledged to significantly increase service reliability in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties. Now the company must go further and make Maryland a reliable national leader in cleaning our air and developing climate-friendly wind and solar power on a large scale. We agree with the County Council that, without such a commitment, this merger is not in the public interest of the county or the state.”
The background text to the resolution passed today warns that the county settlement “does not adequately address the overarching issues that have led the State, the Office of People’s Counsel, the environmental community, and other public interest organizations to maintain that the merger is contrary to the public interest.”
The resolution states: “The Montgomery County Council urges the Maryland Public Service Commission to mitigate the serious risks to the public interest by insisting, at a minimum, on very strong, verifiable, and financially accountable commitments by Exelon (a) to holding down costs to ratepayers and (b) to national leadership in clean, renewable, distributed energy and energy efficiency, with a commitment to a renewable energy standard that is in line with top-performing states.”
View a copy of the full resolution text at: http://chesapeakeclimate.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Montgomery-County-Resolution-on-Pepco-Exelon-Settlement.pdf
Contact:
Kelly Trout, 240-396-2022, kelly@chesapeakeclimate.org
Mike Tidwell, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org
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