Securing our energy future

It was a "green" future O'Malley envisioned with wind, solar and geo-thermal energy adding enough muscle to the state's power grid that we just might avoid those nasty brownouts predicted three years from now.

Local governments and universities will pool their buying power to attract alternative power developers and the state will help these groups build small power plants for peak-time generation of sorely needed electricity.

If all this fails, we'll order Maryland power companies to build new generating plants and buy huge amounts of renewable power from elsewhere, the governor said.

"We cannot stand idly by," O'Malley said. "We have to do something now."

Maryland has dropped the ball by failing to provide an energy-secure future for its citizens. O'Malley likes to blame it on his favorite whipping boy, the electric deregulation law Maryland Democrats overwhelming approved in 1999.

But that's a distortion of history. The deregulation effort was doomed from the start, hamstrung by Gov. Parris Glendening's demand for a long freeze in residential electric rates. That guaranteed there would be no competition to drive down prices. Instead, we ended up with a whopping rate hike when the freeze melted away, as it did a few years ago.

With oil selling for well over $100 a barrel instead of the 1999 price of $15 a barrel, it's time we admit the days of cheap energy are gone. Fuel prices in Maryland were bound to multiply given the insatiable worldwide demand and limited supplies. Deregulation — particularly the long Glendening rate freeze — simply made the process excruciatingly painful.

In the meantime, neither Glendening nor his successor, Republican Bob Ehrlich, did anything to bolster Maryland's already short supply of home-grown energy. They didn't impose tough conservation measures on residents. They didn't offer tax or subsidy stimulants to power producers that would encourage construction of new energy plants. They didn't proactively push for construction of power transmission lines to offset Maryland's deficit in home-grown energy.

So we're stuck with our past leaders' lack of foresight. Can O'Malley's "do it now" energy plan pull Maryland out of this bind? Not unless he changes his hostile approach toward energy providers. He needs plenty of help from the very companies he's been demonizing.

He also will have to be honest with the state's residents: Everyone must pay more to ensure an ample supply of power down the road.

One weakness in the governor's plan is his unwillingness to take on the "not in my backyard" crowd. When locals railed in Western Maryland about aesthetically unsightly wind turbines, O'Malley knuckled under and banned wind power projects in state forests.

The governor also seems to be less than fully enthused about wind turbines off the Maryland coast (there's opposition from folks in Ocean City), but he's all for Delaware and New Jersey oceanic windmills that are drawing lots of NIMBY ire.

The idea seems to be to force power companies and local buying pools to sign long-term contracts for alternate energy sources imported from far, far afield. Plans are afoot for giant wind farms in Texas, for instance, but where is the governor's plan for comparable developments in Maryland?

That's one of the weaknesses in O'Malley's proposal. It will take a substantial financial commitment in the hundreds of millions of dollars to establish new energy-production facilities in the state. So far, that's more of an O'Malley dream than a reality.

The governor also wants to help local governments and universities finance peak-time power plants, but wait till he sees the price tag: perhaps $200 million each. Has O'Malley suddenly discovered a pot of gold — or better yet oil — beneath the State House basement during renovations?

There's also the matter of O'Malley's hot rhetoric toward power companies. Yes, it helped get him elected but now he's got to govern. That means reversing direction: He must find ways to entice big energy producers to locate in Maryland. Tax breaks. Substantial state subsidies. A Public Service Commission that works cooperatively with public utilities rather viewing them as the Evil Empire.

Additionally, the governor needs to actively encourage new transmission lines throughout the state. That won't be popular with home owners who must live with these high-voltage, high-rise towers. Yet this offers perhaps the best mid-term way to avert power shortages.

"I really don't know how this one turns out," O'Malley confessed to MACO members last week. That burst of candor must be the start of McCain-like "straight talk" from the governor. There's no easy way to cure Maryland's energy woes. There's no cheap answer. And there's no politically safe approach that will secure our energy future.

Barry Rascovar is a State House columnist and communications consultant in the Baltimore area. His address is brascovar@hotmail.com.