GOVERNOR O'MALLEY ANNOUNCES PLAN TO PROTECT MARYLAND RATEPAYERS, CREATE RELIABILITY STANDARDS FOR UTILITIES

Baltimore, MD -- During yesterday's second gubernatorial debate, Governor O'Malley reaffirmed his fight on the side of Maryland ratepayers by announcing plans to create reliability standards for Maryland utilities. Interest in reliability standards reappeared among Maryland regulators when a storm resulted in more than 300,000 power outages in late July largely in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, some for as long as five days in record heat.

"The people of Maryland deserve the highest standards of service from their utilities, but they also deserve to have some measure of reliability for the service they pay for," said Governor O'Malley.

"While Bob Ehrlich appointed his unqualified cronies to important positions on the Public Service Commission, we've restored professional regulators to the PSC and have fought on the side of Maryland's working families every step of the way."

In late August, Governor O'Malley formally requested that the Public Service Commission mandate reliability standards as part of their formal inquiry into Pepco's service interruptions. The Public Service Commission launched a formal inquiry following requests from Governor O'Malley to investigate a series of major storm-related power outage over several weeks.

"We can no longer accept that utilities are trying their best," Governor O'Malley continued.

"We must demand safe and reliable electric distribution service and responsive and meaningful customer communication as measured by objective standards."

After restoring professional regulators to Maryland's Public Service Commission, the O'Malley-Brown Administration secured more than $2 billion in relief for Maryland rate payers, and an additional $1.6 billion in savings is expected through 2013.