I was surprised at how much the O'Malley administration wants the combined Exelon/Constellation Energy to raise its contribution to renewable energy in the state. But perhaps I shouldn't have been. Combined with his proposal for a big offshore wind farm and other efforts to green the state's energy portfolio, this makes clear that Gov. O'Malley sees renewable energy as one of the main legacies he wants to leave for his second term.

Exelon didn't appear to flinch in reaction. Don't forget that it's the Public Service Commission, not the O'Malley administration per se, which has to approve or reject the deal. But the PSC is largely an O'Malley creation. In any event, gone is the intense O'Malley administration focus on price reductions for customers of BGE, Constellation's subsidiary. Now he's all about the environment.

The risks raised by Malcolm Woolf, head of O'Malley's Energy Administration, are also worth mentioning. In the event that Exelon ever does an Enron and goes bankrupt, BGE must be protected as much as legally possible. Out-of-state ownership for an essential economic monopoly is full of potential problems. There is also the market-power problem, in which an Exelon-Constellation combo would give the company too much control over regional generation facilities -- even with the divestiture of several coal plants that the companies have proposed.

And, of course, requiring several hundred megawatts of new, green, Maryland generation from the combined company would only exacerbate the market concentration. Should be an interesting decision process.