FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 15, 2011

CONTACT:

Mike Tidwell, Director, 240-460-5838, mtidwell@chesapeakeclimate.org

Jamie Nolan, Communications Director, 240-396-2022, jamie@chesapeakeclimate.org

 

Wind Power and Efficiency Make Big Gains Under Utility Merger Agreement Today Approved by Gov. O’Malley

ANNAPOLIS – Wind power development in Maryland took a big step forward today with news that Gov. Martin O’Malley and other state officials have reached a settlement to allow BG&E parent company Constellation Energy Group to merge with Exelon Energy. The settlement requires that Exelon invest in as much as 125 megawatts of in-state wind generation over the next decade as well as create a $32 million fund to facilitate offshore wind development along the state’s Atlantic coast. The wind development alone could power as many as 40,000 Maryland homes.

Additionally, the settlement requires Exelon to invest in 30 megawatts of solar energy to be deployed in the state by 2015 and invest $70 million in energy efficiency and weatherization assistance to Marylanders, including some of the neediest and most vulnerable BGE customers. These costs must be paid by Exelon and cannot be passed on to ratepayers.

“This settlement means healthier lungs for our kids and a healthier environment for all of us,” said Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN). “It means Maryland is one step closer to developing a home-grown manufacturing base for wind turbines and an overall economy that helps solve global warming.”

CCAN, along with several other leading environmental groups in the state, officially intervened in the merger case and helped successfully push for major renewable energy development as a condition of the merger.

The settlement’s total impact on Maryland’s economy – including construction of an Exelon headquarters facility in Baltimore that will be built to LEED-certified silver energy-efficiency standards — will result in $1 billion worth of new investment in the state and create approximately 6,000 new Maryland jobs.

While very positive overall, the settlement announced today also includes a few features in need of close monitoring. For example, the agreement requires 120 megawatts of new natural gas-fired generation in the state even as concerns rise across the mid-Atlantic region over the harmful and expanding drilling technique known as “hydraulic fracturing” for natural gas. Likewise the agreement will lead to 10-25 megawatts of new power generation from animal waste combustion, a process that comes with its own environmental challenges.

But taken as a whole, the merger settlement clearly advances a sane and sustainable energy strategy for the state. The $32 million fund for offshore wind development, for example, could greatly assist lawmakers as they prepare to vote in 2012 on an O’Malley-sponsored bill to incentivize construction of a 500 megawatt wind farm off the coast of Ocean City. That project alone could power most of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and create 2,400 jobs.

Download a copy of the settlement agreement here.

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The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) is the first grassroots, nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to fighting global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Our mission is to build and mobilize a powerful grassroots movement in this unique region that surrounds our nation’s capital to call for state, national and international policies that will put us on a path to climate stability.