06/17/2026
In a 20-1 vote following several hours of debate last night, I’m pleased to report that my Senate Bill 326 has passed the Senate.
For the past 18 months, I have been laser-focused on bringing down energy costs for ratepayers across the First State. When our energy bills spiked last winter, my colleagues and I worked quickly to draft and pass a package of bills designed to bring relief to ratepayers and put meaningful guardrails on how our public utilities like Delmarva Power bill their customers. SB 326 continues on that work, but specifically addresses key drivers of cost and transparency.
I especially want to thank our Public Advocate, Jameson Tweedie, as well as Matt Hartigan from the Public Service Commission for their work on this legislation.
“Unlike businesses in a competitive market, monopoly utilities face little pressure to control costs because customers cannot take their business elsewhere,” said Jameson in our press release. “At the same time, utility profits increase when infrastructure spending increases. For example, Delmarva Power is seeking to collect an additional $68 million annually from customers, based substantially on rapidly increasing infrastructure spending, while sending more than $200 million in dividends to its parent company, Exelon, in the last year alone. That’s why strong oversight — and a strengthened legal framework — is essential to ensure spending decisions are driven by customer needs, not opportunities to generate higher returns.”
