Maryland People's Counsel Paula Carmody '80 was quoted in The Washington Post on Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposal to allow electric companies to charge ratepayers in advance of serious maintenance upgrades.

Many lawmakers and consumer advocates who have been critical of Pepco have said a surcharge, or "tracker” fee, would essentially reward the company’s past bad behavior by giving it new revenue to get its maintenance program back on track.

"We have strongly opposed their requests for trackers,” People’s Counsel Paula M. Carmody said. "In our view, we’re talking about core system distribution responsibilities of the utilities.”