Governor Martin O'Malley on WTOP Radio
March 17, 2009
Mark Seagraves: Governor, going back to utility bills, because as you acknowledged, people are really getting hammered with some very big bills, especially electric bills. And people are very confused because some people see that their usage hasn't necessarily gone up, but their bills have gone up dramatically. And, you know, they're being told by the power companies that this is because of, you know, colder temperatures and higher usage.
Are you buying what the energy companies are selling?
Governor O'Malley: No. In fact, they were not able to come up with an answer that was satisfactory for our Public Service Commission. Because, you know, not only are families getting hammered in the recession, but they're also getting hammered with the unemployment rate being higher than it's been in some 25 years, and then they get hammered with electric bills that are going up, even when their energy consumption has not gone up.
So, no, the Public Service Commission is not satisfied, I wasn't satisfied. And that's why we asked the Public Service Commission to put a moratorium on shut-off notices, so that we don't have this wave of people having their electric shut-off as soon as April rolls around. You know, there's typically a moratorium in the winter months and we've asked them to extend that for another month, and hopefully the Public Service Commission will soon get to the bottom of the explanation on the rates.
