Addressing Delaware’s Energy Costs: A Call for Common Sense Solutions

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

Sometimes, when you are looking for a reason for your woes, you should look in the mirror.

That is the advice the General Assembly should take to heart.  Recently, there has been a lot of citizen anger, so there has been a lot of political concern about the cost of electricity.  As a result, politicians are trying to “do something about it.”  Several pieces of legislation have been introduced to address the issue, and hearings have been held.  Their efforts, not entirely, but for the most part, have been misguided.

First, legislators are calling for more scrutiny of the energy providers spending priorities and pricing, but not of the impact of policy decisions that affect both pricing and availability. They are proposing to put a limit on capital expenses by power companies (read bringing new and better technology online) but have not looked at the impact of their legislation on the cost of acquiring energy from out of state, rather than generating it within our own boundaries.

Why are prices up? There are several causes. One is the weather. Like it or not, the records show that the demand for power in January 2025 was levels not seen for 25 years. More usage equals higher prices.  But that was an episodic event, and there are other impacts built into our state energy policies that have even greater effect.

Most significantly, the decision to eliminate sources of energy before they are able to be replaced has an impact.  Delaware already imports more energy than it generates.   But we have taken the Indian River power plant offline (shut it down) before we have developed the capacity to replace the energy it was providing. Significant, regional shortfalls are expected over the next 10 years and are expected to increase.  Legislative policies requiring energy from renewable sources (wind, solar), in ever-increasing percentages of total energy provided by the electric companies, are going to create increased prices because renewable energy generation is not keeping pace with previous levels of energy generation prior to the retirement of sources like Indian River power plant.
We are giving up supply before we replace it.

Delaware is not alone in this regard. Many of our surrounding states are adopting the same, short-sighted policies without regard to how consumers are affected.   It only takes a little common sense to be able to understand that the less energy, the higher the cost.

Not only are we giving up sources of power before other resources become available, but we are also choosing power generation sources that are extremely more expensive and less reliable.

Although immediate costs of both onshore and offshore wind have decreased in recent estimated projects, that is because the turbines being built are larger, and farther offshore. But, as an article in the Harvard Business Review acknowledged, “the most significant cost escalation is likely to occur in decommissioning… involving the disassembly of turbines, removal of foundations and cables…” Historically, these costs and their impact on consumers have been given little attention, but as turbines age, the costs of turbine maintenances increase, and the full cost of decommissioning is identified, regulators and providers will be required to address the issue.

Legislation is also being considered that would make it easier for regulators to disallow costs requested by power companies in a rate case.  Already highly regulated, this would impose a political consideration into a business decision – a practice of which we at A Better Delaware have been consistently critical.

Delaware has access to resources to help consumers who cannot afford the increased prices pay for power. That money is part of a cap-and-trade program for energy efficiency and consumer benefits.        It is not an insignificant sum. It has been reported that in 2019, the Delaware Department of Natural Resources received $217 million from the program.  Now, some legislators have proposed that the money in that program be returned to low-income families who are struggling to meet their energy bills.

Finally, some legislators have expressed interest in changing the mandates, passed several years ago, that set increasingly strict mandates for the percentage of power that must come from renewable resources.  In that same, prior law, a cost cap protection that would have prevented excessive rate hikes was repealed, a subtle acknowledgement that the costs of renewables is greater than the cost of then-existing energy sources. Whether those steps will be taken remains to be seen.

We need to protect access to affordable energy sources until cost effective alternatives are available and allow the power companies to make decisions that will maximize their ability to meet consumer demand in a cost-effective and responsible manner. Our current policies do not allow for either. If the General Assembly wants to respond to citizens’ concerns with common sense solutions, they need to look in the mirror, identify the problem, and work to correct our policies and laws to the benefit of Delawareans.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.

Navigating Fiscal Challenges In Delaware: Insights from the FY 26 State Budget Hearings

By: State Representative, Kevin S. Hensley, Guest Contributor

This year’s hearings on the FY 26 state budget have been interesting thus far.  We’ve had brand new cabinet secretaries presenting their department’s priorities, having been on the job for less than thirty days.  Furthermore, the Governors Recommended Budget (GRB) which is being considered is actually the budget put forth by former Governor Carney on his last day of office in January.  We’ve been told that Governor Meyer will be performing a budget “reset” in March – no one seems to know at this time how this will affect what we’ve been working on during this month of February.

In the budget overview, OMB Director Maxwell informed us that the proposed budget represents a 6.9% increase over the FY 25 budget.  Please note that the prior two years budgets have seen growth by just under 10% each year.  I have suggested since my time on the Joint Finance Committee that this amount of growth would not be sustainable and that we ought to be looking at how to keep spending under control.

Unfortunately, it seems that I’ve been right after all . . . it is currently projected that at this rate, we will be running a 325 million deficit in FY 27 and a 143 million deficit in FY 28.  The Administration has proposed that we raid the budget stabilization account (one of our two state savings accounts) to cover the shortfall.  This in essence would completely deplete this account.   I do not agree that this is the proper approach.  Instead, we should be looking at the number of vacant positions in state government of three years or more and move to eliminate some or all of them from the operating budget.  My feeling is if they’ve not been filled at this point, and the agency seems to be operating fine without them, that we remove them from the books.

Our budget challenges in part are related to the increased cost of those programs we are obligated to fund (often referred to as “door openers”).  These include an $85 million increase in the Medicaid program for FY 26.  While the number of participants in the program has dropped from about 310,000 Delawareans to 290,000 currently, the cost of services has increased.  Other programs include $26 million additional to cover just enrollment growth in our public schools throughout the state and $81 million to cover increases in teachers salaries.

In addition to the State’s operating budget, there are two additional pots of money – the Bond fund to cover the costs of infrastructure projects and the Grant In Aid budget to subsidize the work of hundreds of non-profits throughout the State.  I have long been advocating to increase this allocation which has been fairly flat over the past several years.  These organizations do great work for some of the State’s most vulnerable population and are critical in addressing the needs of thousands of Delawareans.

Please stay tuned as we continue to work through the budget and don’t be shy about weighing in with your thoughts to your State Senator or Representative.

State Representative Kevin Hensley, elected to the House of Representatives in 2014, represents the 9th District, which includes the Odessa, Townsend, and Port Penn areas in Delaware. Kevin is an Associate Broker with RE/MAX Premier Properties, a Founding Member of the MOT Charter School, and an advocate for nonprofit organizations that support members of the IDD community, including Easterseals and Ability Network of Delaware.

Think Your Electric Bill Was High? Here’s What’s Coming

By: David T. Stevenson, Guest Editor

Sorry about those high electric bills, but nothing has really changed in the last few months except the weather. Higher costs have been sneaking up for decades and wait till you see what’s coming next.

In 2008 legislation, and more recent amendments, passed mandating ever-growing requirements for wind and solar power, and creating a carbon tax on in state power plants.  Because of efforts like ours you can see the costs as line items on your electric bills if you are a Delmarva Power customer. Add up the line items for the Green Energy Fund, the Qualified Fuel Cells, the Renewable Power Compliance Charge, and Energy Efficiency Charge and you will see that they are adding about 10% to your electric bill, or about $170 a year on an average bill. Those charges will continue creeping up and could double without a mandate for offshore wind. If Delmarva is forced to buy offshore wind your electric bill could rise an additional average of $200 a year over twenty years.

Because Delmarva buys power on long term contracts you can’t see the carbon tax cost. Two years ago, the cost was transparent on Virginia electric bills and added $75 a year, and the regional tax increased about three-fold since then and could be about $200 a year now.  Taken together your green energy bill could rise to $600 a year just for wind, solar and carbon taxes.

However, there’s more. Delaware’s Climate Action Plan foresees mandates to force all home heating and hot water systems to be fueled by electricity which cost more than propane or natural gas. We already have a mandate to eventually force you to drive an electric vehicle probably charged at home. All that extra electric demand will have to be met with unreliable wind and solar power so a study will be ordered this year to possibly mandate back up storage batteries costing hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. Utility scale wind and solar projects are usually located far from existing power transmission and distribution lines so billions of dollars will be invested in that infrastructure.

A recent study completed for the New England states surmised a similar plan could double electric rates. The average Delaware residential electric bill is about $1680 a year now. Ready to pay $1680 more? Perhaps these recent high electric bills will wake folks up to the slow boil before they get cooked. In future elections make sure you know what energy policies your candidates support. We can have clean, reliable, affordable power for a lot less than these so-called green policies.

David T. Stevenson has spent the last twelve years as the Director of the Center for Energy & Environment for the Caesar Rodney Institute.  He is also currently leading the national effort opposing offshore wind through the American Coalition for Ocean Protection and the Ocean Environment Legal Defense Fund, promoting advanced nuclear power development.

More Transparency And Accountability is Needed: Delawareans Deserve to Know What Their Government Is Doing

By: Jane Brady, Chair, A Better Delaware

Delaware is a small community, even if it is a state. To say “everyone knows everyone” is mostly true, and in that kind of business and political climate, there is a tendency to get things done through those relationships, not necessarily according to the laws and regulations of the State.

There are some checks and balances, that are respected, but the way Delaware government has done business is, as a practical matter, informal.

A Better Delaware has called for more accountability and transparency in Delaware’s governing practices on a consistent basis.  The Center for Public Integrity rates Delaware 48^th in the nation with regard to those factors, giving us a failing grade in ethics enforcement and our Freedom of Information laws.

Recent events have highlighted why we need to improve.  Legislators have been arrested for criminal offenses, there was an embezzlement from the Unemployment Insurance Fund that was not disclosed for approximately six months and questions about both the “double-dipping” of legislators also holding state employment positions as well as where grant funds, in particular to address the opioid crisis, went.  These events have apparently not gone unnoticed.

Newly elected Governor Matt Meyer seems to be addressing some of the issues.  He has promised to require ethics training for all state employees. He has further stated that any misappropriation of tax dollars would be identified to the public within 90 days.  He directed all the state agencies to review the past four years of “audit findings” within the next three months.  Presumably, that means the agencies will conduct those audits, as that is not an annual practice of any state agency. Further, you may recall that, last year, one fund within the Department of Labor was actually deemed “unauditable” by the state Auditor’s office. Regular and consistent attention to the accounting of how and where your tax dollars are being spent is information every Delawarean deserves.

And speaking of the Auditor’s office, pending legislation would give the Delaware Auditor of Accounts the authority to issue subpoenas directly, removing a requirement to go through the courts. This proposal would expedite the review of agency finances, as well as allow more flexibility to respond to emerging situations. It is a welcome change. You may recall the difficulty a previous Auditor had in getting cooperation from state agencies and the legislature.

It is not just where your money is going that should concern you. How effectively it is being spent is also important. Each year, the Department of Education publishes data regarding all Delaware public schools, currently known as School Performance Data Reports. These reports are known as the Delaware Report Card., and have, historically, been difficult to find on the Department’s website. Legislation now pending would require the Department to provide a link to these reports on the home page of the Department’s website, as well as better identify all education-related data to reflect the broad range of data that the Department publishes, in addition to the annual reports required under existing State and federal law. Many parents do not know how well the school their child attends is teaching, so there is real learning.  Shamefully, there are more than a dozen schools in Delaware where the proficiency of students in Math and English is below 10%. That means fewer than 10 of every hundred students in that school are reading or doing math at grade level.  Knowing where your child’s school stands can be important information as more and more options become available for parents to choose where to send their child to school.  No child’s chances of success should depend on the zip code in which their family can afford to live.

Finally, government does not always act with the proper intentions or in accord with the will of the people. We should know what is motivating our leaders when they make choices significant numbers of us oppose. The EV mandate is one. Why are the leaders committed to forcing us to buy the kind of car they choose? Why are they intentionally working to eliminate gas powered cars completely? And why are they doing it, not only when it is so universally opposed, but when the costs, range, safety and ability to charge these vehicles are prohibitive to many?

Similarly, why are our leaders willing to sign agreements to take money from a wind farm company in exchange for access to our shores when the electricity will not go to Delaware customers, no jobs are created for Delaware businesses and such an agreement imposes all the risks to the environment on Delaware citizens, and in particular, Sussex County’s residents and natural resources?

Answers to questions such as this may come from an independent and impartial review by an Inspector General, someone who has no political or financial interest in the answers to these questions, and who is obligated to provide the public or members of the General Assembly the answers.  Legislation should be passed to establish the Office of Inspector General in Delaware.

As citizens, as taxpayers, as residents, we all are owed the duty of responsiveness and fidelity to the laws and oath of office from our elected and appointed officials.  Assuring that we are informed and that where and how our money is being spent is accurately reported is a core duty of our government. We seem to be making some small steps in the right direction.

Jane Brady serves as Chair of A Better Delaware. She previously served as Attorney General of Delaware and as a Judge of the Delaware Superior Court.