PSC Staff Issues 8-9 Cease & Desist Letters To Retail Suppliers

During today's administrative meeting, Maryland PSC Chairman Jason Stanek said that various PSC Staff offices have issued 8 or 9 cease and desist letters to retail suppliers in the past week

"More to come," Stanek said of the cease and desist letters

Stanek did not identify by name any suppliers to which a cease and desist letter was issued

"Retail supply issues continue to concern me," Stanek said

Stanek said that while complaints against suppliers did not reach a record in February, the number of complaints was only 4 complaints shy of an all-time record, with Stanek noting that February has only 28 days

"This industry needs to clean up," Stanek said, reiterating Commissioner Anthony O’Donnell's recent "shot across the bow" of retail suppliers, as O’Donnell previously warned, "Clean up your act, industry, or things will change dramatically."

"We're serious," Stanek said, citing several recently opened proceedings against suppliers, as previously reported

Stanek reiterated that he believes the Office of People's Counsel may issue cease and desist letters to retail suppliers

Stanek cited what he termed OPC's "investigative" authority under §2–204 of the Code of Maryland, Article - Public Utilities

Stanek said that OPC has a much broader mission than just appearing before the PSC as a party, notwithstanding the brief statutory text concerning OPC

Stanek provided the following example. Noting that he drives an electric vehicle, Stanek said that his biggest pet peeve is when he sees an ICE car parked in a designated EV charger space. "I was at the New Carrollton public library, and the chargers were blocked by cars parked, just parked. I saw a New Carrollton police officer. I said, 'Shouldn't you ticket that car?' He took a look at the sign said 'EV Parking Only'. He looked in his manual. He was very diligent; he looked in his citation book. He said, 'I cannot find where they violated city or town law' -- handicapped, yes, curb, yellow zone, red zone. He said, 'Sorry. I am not empowered to issue a citation here.' Fast forward. I'm at Whole Foods in Riverdale Park. Again, Whole Foods a rather progressive company has free charging. Again, the chargers are blocked by ICE vehicles. And I go up to the Riverdale Park police officer. And he said the same thing, 'These are Whole Foods EV signs, I'm not sure I can enforce it.' And then he was like, 'What the heck, I can find something in the book.' And he started writing tickets. I would ask that OPC be the Riverdale Park police officer, not the New Carrollton police officer. You do have that authority to issue cease and desist letters."

OPC has the, "support of the Commission," in a number of actions, Stanek said

"Being proactive requires cooperation with this agency, and I ask the Office of People's Counsel to commit to working with this agency in a cooperative manner," Stanek said

Maryland People's Counsel David S. Lapp issued the following statement today:

"Administrative meetings are to conduct Commission business, not for soapboxes, but the Chairman has used them in recent weeks to attack our office. Unfortunately, his monologues waste the limited resources of his own staff, our staff, and other interested parties.

"The Chairman appears to be questioning OPC’s priorities. As the Chairman responds to the 150 individual customer emails complaining of the rate increases that his Commission has approved, the Commission has failed to provide any leadership on the customer impact of the hundreds of millions of dollars that State gas utilities are spending annually on fossil fuel infrastructure which has no known future use, saddling customers with potentially billions in stranded investments. A month ago, OPC filed a petition asking the Commission simply to open a proceeding to look into gas utility operations in light of the widely acknowledged substantial declines in gas sales as a result of electric technologies and State climate policy. OPC’s petition raises critical issues that will impact the affordability of utility bills for residential natural gas customers for decades. Yet, a month has passed with tens of millions more dollars spent on gas infrastructure, while the Commission has failed to even acknowledge OPC’s filing by opening a docket for a case. One would think that addressing this issue would be a better use of everyone’s time."

--- Statement from Maryland People's Counsel David S. Lapp

The People's Counsel further said that it stands by its prior statement from February 22 (click here)