Listen to this articleANNAPOLIS — Maryland lawmakers are expected to include direct relief payments as part of their yearslong plan to lower residential energy costs, though the $80 to $85 average amount that people could receive will account for a modest portion of their annual costs and may not even cover their bill for a full month.
Senate Democrats have added the direct payments for residential electric customers to a broader energy bill that they and their House counterparts are hoping will provide ratepayers with short-, mid- and long-term relief.
The exact amount that each of the state’s roughly 2.5 million eligible accounts receive will be based on their energy usage levels. The payments are expected to be deducted directly from ratepayers’ bills and will go out in two installments — one during the summer peak usage period and one during the winter peak.
Senate President Bill Ferguson said Friday that Democrats are hoping to reach households who aren’t wealthy but who aren’t eligible for programs available to low-income households, including the nonprofit Fuel Fund of Maryland, which provides grants to BGE customers who’ve had their power disconnected or received notice of an impending turnoff, and state-funded assistance with installing energy conservation tools at home.
“That middle gap is really feeling the pinch,” Ferguson said during a press conference.
The payments won’t target any specific income groups, largely because energy bills are based on usage and because of the lack of income-level data available to utility companies.
Sen. Cheryl Kagan, a Montgomery County Democrat who serves as the vice chair for the Senate’s committee on the environment, said Friday that she was weary about the broad-based nature of the payments, which will be based on usage levels.
Kagan, whose committee included the payments as part of Democrats’ omnibus energy bill and forwarded it to the full chamber for debate and a vote of passage in the next week or so, said she was concerned that the payments will be going to ratepayers regardless of their income status.
“My concern is that someone in a mega mansion is going to get a whole lot of money, and someone who is trying to pinch their pennies will get a paltry amount but have a greater need,” Kagan said.
Lawmakers have budgeted $200 million for the direct relief program through an investment fund controlled by the Maryland Energy Administration. The fund is part of a state program to lower energy demand and boost supply.
Kagan said that $200 million is a large chunk of money to “give away with no litmus test at all.”
Senate Republicans pounced on the payment proposal, saying that the measure is not so much a rebate or relief as it is a return of overpayments that ratepayers have made.
“Ratepayers,” Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey said in a statement, “have been forced to underwrite the Democratic policies that have driven their rates up by requiring utility companies to purchase of (sic) more expensive power.”