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June 20, 2008

Monkey business on the electric grid

Today's column:

Two days ago, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said she had evidence a company called Edison Mission Energy continued a suspicious pattern of wholesale electricity trading long after it claimed to have stopped.

Why does this matter to Maryland?

Edison Mission sells electricity to the PJM grid, which stretches from the East Coast to Illinois. Potential price manipulation by Edison Mission or any other electricity producer in a deregulated marketplace can reap hundreds of millions in improper profits and raise prices for everybody who gets their power off the grid.

That includes you, Baltimore Gas and Electric customers.

Edison Mission denied Madigan's allegation yesterday, saying the troubling behavior she identified came from generation plants owned by other companies.

"These are not our units," said company spokesman Doug McFarlan.

Read the whole Hancock column here.

Posted by Jay Hancock at 9:50 AM | | Comments (1)
        

Comments

Thanks I was interested about this!

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About Jay Hancock
Jay Hancock has been a financial columnist for The Baltimore Sun since 2001. He has also been The Baltimore Sun's diplomatic correspondent in Washington and its chief economics writer. Before moving to Baltimore in 1994 he worked for The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk and The Daily Press of Newport News.

His columns appear Tuesdays and Sundays.
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