By: jackie.sauter

At a Thursday Public Service Commission hearing, commissioners were looking to get information about why customer bills have skyrocketed this winter and how to keep customers from falling behind on their payments.

Before the hearing began, Chairman Douglas R.M. Nazarian mentioned that the hearing was for utilities and advocacy groups to discuss the problem and suggest some solutions — but it was not a forum for customers to complain.

“It’s a public hearing in the sense that everybody is invited to watch, it is not a public hearing in the sense of anyone who wants to speak today is going to be allowed to speak. We’re going to hear from parties, but we’re not going to hear from the public at large,” Nazarian said.

Despite Nazarian’s insistence that the public would not be able to discuss their personal bill issues, Commission Harold Williams, a Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. customer, took several opportunities to reference his own January bill during BGE’s testimony.

Williams must have realized that he had broken the rules when he eventually decided it was not the time or place to talk about his bills.

“I should not have brought my individual problem to this hearing because we are here for the consumers of Maryland, but I thought it would be an example of what they’re dealing with…I’m just going to try to sit here and be quiet for a while,” he said.

Perhaps Williams should have taken a breather from the hearing and wandered down the hall, where BGE did have reps on hand to talk to customers.

DANIELLE ULMAN, Business Writer