Editorial: O'Malley Neglected Montgomery County in Storm

In an editorial entitled Outage Outrage: The Politics of Electricity, contributing editor Gregg Easterbrook wrote in The Atlantic this month that Gov. Martin O'Malley has neglected the state of Maryland to focus on positioning himself for a run for the presidency.

The opinion piece focuses on the long and massive power outage after the June 29 "Derecho" storm, over the continuing problems with storm response and how O'Malley's political future might be tied up with those issues.

Easterbrook had Montgomery County particularly in mind. He is a Montgomery County resident whose home is serviced by Pepco:

Montgomery County, Maryland, is one of the nation's bluest and wealthiest counties; its perennially awful power service raises the question of whether liberals can make the trains run on time.

Easterbrook says there's nothing the Montgomery County Council can do because under Maryland law, the state has sole authority over power utilities.

He outlines Pepco's performance history in an effort to answer his own question: "How does Pepco get away with this?"

Read the rest of Easterbrook's criticism of O'Malley and the state's response to the power outages on The Atlantic website.

Do you agree with Easterbrook's assertion that Montgomery County's power issues reflect a larger issue for Democrats?

Could the state's problems with utility service threaten O'Malley's national political ambitions? Tell us in the comments.

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Editor's Note: Patch has requested comment from a spokesperson for the governor's office.