Panel may lift hurdle to merger of utilities.(Business)

0 Comments | Washington Times, The, June, 1997 | by Kaplan, Peter

The House Appropriations D.C. oversight subcommittee may help clear the way for the proposed merger of Potomac Electric Power Co. and Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. by repealing the city's utility anti-merger law. Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, Virginia Republican, said yesterday he will propose reversing the city's 1913 anti-merger law as part of a D.C.

financial aid bill being drafted by the panel. That would clear away a major obstacle to the $3.1 billion union of the region's two largest electric utilities, because the statute requires that Congress approve any deal that would lead to outside control of a public utility. The deal to merge Pepco and BGE into a single, giant company called Constellation Energy Corp. has been...