Electrical infrastructure at the Conowingo Dam in Maryland. Democratic lawmakers in Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, West Virginia and Pennsylvania want to force electric utilities file a record of their votes at PJM, the nation’s largest regional transmission organization. (David Byron Keener | Getty Images)
Last year, Maryland state lawmaker Lorig Charkoudian was on her own when she filed legislation seeking to force her state’s utilities to reveal votes at the grid operator that coordinates the flow of electricity for 65 million people in the Eastern U.S.
Her bill passed the House, but stalled in the upper chamber.
This year, though, her legislation is back, with backup: a Senate companion in Maryland and similar measures filed by lawmakers in Virginia , Illinois , West Virginia . Another bill is expected to come in Pennsylvania.
“It’s a movement,” Charkoudian, a Democratic delegate from Montgomery County in the Washington, D.C. area, said with a chuckle.
The bills broadly seek to force electric utilities to file with state regulators a record of their votes at PJM, the nation’s largest regional transmission organization. But it’s something of an uphill fight. The utilities that hold sway at PJM have battled the proposals, Charkoudian said, and trying to get her colleagues up to speed on the complex inner workings of the organization and the electric grid can be a tall order.