Maryland Green Party members were well represented in yesterdays rally in Annapolis clling for a special session of the state legislature re-regulate the energy industry and place rate caps back on.

Greens from Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Montgomery County were among the Maryland Coalition to Stop the BGE Rate Hikes witch gathered several hundered people to Lawyer’s Mall opposite the Governor’s mansion.

Perhaps the most moving speaker at the rally was LaLydia Stokes, a Meter Reader who was fired in retaliation for whistleblowing on BGE’s meter falsifications, said that the BGE meters were often defective, giving false readings, and that, as a result, residential ratepayers were being overcharged; also, Stokes informed the audience that she was aware of a number of other Meter Readers who were giving false readings- a big reason for this is the Meter Readers are heavily overworked, and their numbers are not large enough for the massive quantities of meters to be read.  Stokes indicated that she has documents and digital photographs to back up her claims.

A LaLydia Stokes Legal Defense Fundis being established for her to continue her work against BGE, with the first donation coming from an out of state tourist who heard her speak and was moved to donate.

Green Party candidate for Baltimore City Council, Maria Allwine, gave a rousing speech, citing public ownership of electricity utilities, chiding Constellation/ BGE for making cheap electricity at 3-5 ckwh, then selling it to us at 13 ckwh; Allwine castigated BGE’s bogus comments that blaming ancillary costs like advertising, employee salaries.

Annapolis City Councilman Sam Shropshire also spoke, saying that the Council had been lied to by BGE before deregulation passed and that he supported legislation that would Re-Regulate Constellation/ BGE.

Also speaking was Rita Collins, candidate in the Democrtic primary for the 11th District, BaltimoreCity Council.

The crowd, numbering several hundred, then marched through the downtown district, receiving many honks and waves and quite a few comments from people angry over the rate increases.