Brian Pettyjohn, R-Georgetown, is the Senate’s minority whip.
On Sept. 28, the Philadelphia 76ers announced a multiyear partnership and jersey patch deal with Bloom Energy. Good for the Sixers. NBA jersey patches don’t come cheap, and Bloom obviously has the money to spend on one.
Here’s my problem with it: Every Delmarva Power customer in Delaware is still paying a charge on his or her electric bill that goes to Bloom Energy. It’s been there since 2012, and under the deal Delaware signed, it stays there until 2033.
For anyone who wasn’t around in 2011, here’s how we got here: The Delaware General Assembly passed Senate Bill 124, which redefined Bloom’s natural gas fuel cells as “renewable” energy, so Delmarva could install 30 megawatts of them and bill ratepayers for 21 years. In exchange, Bloom promised 900 manufacturing jobs at the old Chrysler site in Newark by 2017. The state added a $12 million grant on top of that.
Ratepayers were told it would cost them about a dollar a month. It ended up costing several times that.
The jobs didn’t show up on schedule, either. When the 2017 deadline hit, Bloom had roughly 300 Delaware workers, about a third of what was promised. The company paid back part of its state grant and forfeited another piece.
To be fair, Bloom’s workforce in Newark has grown in recent years, and I’m glad for every Delawarean working there. But the deal was never “900 jobs someday.” It was 900 jobs by 2017, and ratepayers were locked in for two decades based on that promise. The state got some grant money back. Delmarva customers never got a dime back on the surcharge.
My colleagues and I called this a sweetheart deal back in 2020, and nothing since has changed my mind. Bloom’s own federal filings show the Delmarva project bringing in roughly $36 million a year.
I’m not rooting against Bloom. I want it to succeed and keep hiring in Newark. But a company that can put its name on an NBA jersey is not a company that needs a subsidy from a retiree in Seaford or a young family in Millsboro trying to keep the lights on, while Delmarva Power asks for yet another rate increase.
So, here’s my ask: Bloom should come to the table and voluntarily end or reduce this surcharge. If it’s doing well enough to sponsor the Sixers, it’s doing well enough to stop charging Delaware families for a promise it didn’t keep on time.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
