O’Malley seeing green leaves Marylanders in the red
The Gazette reports that Martin O’Malley, speaking at the annual Maryland Association of Counties summer conference, publicly touted his new energy plan:
We believe that we can make our state the national leader in renewable energy and we plan to move forward toward making our state one of the very first in the nation to use its market power to jumpstart large-scale commercial renewable energy projects (”O’Malley touts Montgomery program in energy speech” August 18, 2008).
About what “market power” is he speaking? The rising demand for electricity in Maryland?
All indicators suggest that the demand for electricity in Maryland is increasing so much that the alarmists are crying about brownouts, soon to occur in Maryland as early as 2011.
Yet, once again, the O’Malley Administration refuses to address the crux of the issue: Maryland’s aging power grid. Once again, the Democrats refuse to accept responsibility for creating a hostile business environment that discourages business investment in creating new energy sources or the infrastructure necessary to support them. In short, as with the port it’s the infrastructure, stupid!
In “Facing a Dim Future” (Baltimore Sun August 14, 2008) H. Russell Frisby notes that
Maryland faces a critical shortage of electricity. As a state, we consume more energy than we generate…[low supply + high demand = increased utility costs]
…and in a few years, because of a lack of adequate and reliable transmission infrastructure, we will not be able even to import all of the electricity we need. [high demand + low supply = increased utility costs]
Furthermore,
Marylanders pay a “congestion tax” because the flow of electricity into Maryland is constrained by the aging and inadequate regional grid that transmits it. We pay higher rates because the congested grid makes it difficult to import cheaper (and greener) electricity from the Midwest, where it is abundant and available.
Hmmmm…sounds like quite a dilemma, which raises some important questions:
Why hasn’t BGE developed generating capacity to meet the growing demands of Maryland consumers?
And why aren’t utility companies interested in investing in Maryland to update the regional grid to make more electricity available to meet the rising demand?
Perhaps, as is noted by Martin Watcher at OMalleyWatch.com, businesses are actually in business to make money. And in Maryland, money invested in improving infrastructure required to allow profit to be produced is not likely to be recovered, especially when the State in which the money is invested is Maryland.
Note Frisby’s final comment:
Finally, policymakers and power suppliers need to address how to spur the market to build new generation in the state, especially from renewable sources, by resolving the uncertainty surrounding reliance on market forces. Maryland cannot afford to let the fear of whether or not the state will re-regulate deter companies from making needed infrastructure investments.
Spurring the market to build new energy sources does not address the grid problem. Regardless of where the energy is generated, whether from renewable resources or (gasp!) coal-fired plants in Western Maryland, electricity still must be transported over an archaic infrastructure that lacks the capacity to meet the burgeoning demand.
And why should any utility company “invest” in infrastructure improvements when it will not be permitted to recoup its investment through incentives offered by the State legislature or in increased energy costs passed through to consumers?
The talk of re-regulation certainly dampens the enthusiasm of any energy entity contemplating expanding business in Maryland.
One thing is certain: demand for electricity will continue to grow. And without a cost-effective plan to deal with the generation and infrastructure problems, Maryland citizens and business will continue to struggle to stay in the black, paying the second-highest cost in the region for electricity.
What a shame that consumers cannot harness the energy spent by Maryland politicians blowing in the wind. We all know that the windmill farms will be, unfortunately, located in Delaware.
