Maryland officials urge Pepco hike be denied

A day after a violent storm, with winds equivalent to that of a hurricane, left hundreds of thousands of people without power, Dominion Power had 3,000 line crews out to turn on lights, while Pepco only had 1,000. The day after the June 29th storm, Dominion had fixed 120,000 outages and Pepco 13,000. The figures were featured in a report compiled by the office of Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and released on Thursday ahead of a Montgomery County Council hearing on Pepco’s storm response.

In a stern letter to Council President Roger Berliner, D-Potomac Bethesda, Van Hollen said Pepco, which had been criticized many times for its poor performance after severe weather, continues to fail its customers. “This is obviously part of a persistent pattern of underperformance,” said Van Hollen in an interview. Along with 30 other Maryland officials, Van Hollen strongly advised the Maryland Public Service Commission to reject a 4 percent rate increase proposal by Pepco that would raise the average residential bill by $5.50. According to Commission Chair Douglas R.M. Nazarian, the ruling will be released on Friday.