Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pulled her support of the merger of Pepco and nuclear energy titan Exelon Tuesday, after regulators voted down the controversially negotiated proposal and countered with a revised deal.
“The Public Service Commission rejected an agreement that had the support of the Peoples Counsel, Attorney General, DC Water and others,” read a Tuesday press release from the mayor’s office. “The PSC’s counterproposal guts much needed protections against rate increases for DC residents and assistance for low-income DC rate payers. That is not a deal that I can support.”
D.C.’s Public Service Commission (PSC) shot down the proposal Friday for the $6.8 billion merger of Pepco and Exelon, which would create the largest utility in the nation servicing 10 million people.
PSC then voted to approve a revised agreement Friday. Bowser, whose special adviser Beverly Perry is a former executive of Pepco, announced in a press release she cannot support the revised proposal because it risks exposing residents to costly energy rate increases.
“From the start, we focused on affordability, reliability and sustainability,” read the press release. “We pulled everyone together to negotiate an agreement that was a great deal for DC residents.”
Pepco and Exelon have until March 11 to review and respond to the revised deal and the new concessions city regulators want from the companies, reports Chicago Business Journal.
Pepco, which provides utility services in the D.C. metro area, announced the proposed merger with Chicago-based nuclear energy behemoth Exelon in April 2014, but PSC rejected the agreement in August. The commission argued the merger countered District plans to encourage and boost the use of renewable energy.
Bowser fought to keep the merger on track, however facing pressure from utility companies, her administration negotiated new terms and convinced the PSC to reopen the case on a faster timetable. Some council members alleged Perry pushed the mayor into reviving the merger, reports The Washington Post.
“Pepco and Exelon have always been very confident – overly confident – in their dealings with D.C. on this merger, and we’ve heard it’s because they believed they had an inside track, someone on the inside,” Anya Schoolman, director of the nonprofit Community Power Network said at an opposition press conference. “We always believed that was Beverly Perry.”
The Bowser administration said Perry removed herself from all dealings, negotiations or conversations involving the merger. Perry reacted to the criticism, saying she’s stayed away from the issue to avoid any conflict of interest, reports The Washington Post.
“I have stayed away from it; I have had absolutely nothing to do with it,” Perry told The Washington Post. “Anything that I would receive at this point from a merger, I would receive no matter if I worked for the mayor or for Walmart.”
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