The BillLaurelMD household has been hit by big utility bills since deregulation went through in MD in 2006. In the winter of 2005-6, I spent about $0.06/kWhr on electricity in an all-electric house. Well, deregulation hit and now I'm paying $0.156/kWh, about 260% more. From the CA experience (and my parents live out in suburban LA, so they've been through this), one can say I and other Marylanders have been Enronized, or maybe more appropriately, Enronicated.
See more below the fold.
When BGE rates went from 0.06/kWh to about $0.10/kWh, I decided I'd change from them to one of the "competitors". I chose Commerce Energy, one of about 4-5 different energy suppliers, because at the time it had the lowest rate (only guaranteed through May 2006). This happened in February 2006. Deregulation, of course, was to increase competition, provide energy more efficiently, and reduce the cost to consumers. Here's the result for this one energy broker since February 2007, and I've been paying the price. Note that none of the other providers (not shown) are terribly much better.
BGE was granted a 50% rate increase in June 2007, in case you're wondering what that July '07 spike came from. This, by the way, was on top of a 72% increase the previous year.
The Free State Politics blog has been doing a pretty good job covering this process, as I have become aware, talking about the Public Service Commission under previous Gov. Ehrlich (R, corruption) and now under Martin O'Malley (D, stuck-holding-the-bag). It turns out, however, the damage really was done in 1999, when a law (HB 703, SB 300) passed the General Assembly and Senate that set up deregulation. Gov. Glendening had plenty of misgivings about the bill, but Senate Pres. Mike Miller (D, unfortunately) threatened to hold up some pet projects unless he signed the legislation, so it was signed by him anyway.
UPDATE 3/28/08:
Since I wrote the above about 3-4 weeks ago, I also have switched back to BGE for rates...turns out they were only 2/3 the rate I was being charged by the "free market" company I was previously with.
It seems that Constellation Energy has reached a settlement on a law suit by the State of Maryland that was brought last month, while I began writing this diary entry. More on that can be found here and on the original law suit here. Looks like I get $175 back. Whoopee! What's good in here is that Marylanders will not have to pay for the decommissioning of our one nuclear power plant in Calvert County, though a new one may be built to take its place. I'm somewhat agnostic on nuclear energy plants currently in existence, but don't want any new ones built until we settle how waste is handled to our collective satisfaction. While I'm no expert on any of this, I do believe this is a problem that is yet to be solved.