Ehrlich could be tempting target for BGE blame

State officials will be playing a high-stakes poker game when the legislature meets this week to try to come up with a plan to defuse voter anger over electricity rate increases, and the man with the most at stake may be Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.

The Republican governor wasn’t even in Annapolis when the seeds of the current crisis were sown with passage of a utility deregulation bill in 1999. But that won’t necessarily protect Mr. Ehrlich as he asks voters this fall to send him back for a second term. When voters are unhappy and looking for someone to blame, the governor offer a tempting target.

“I think he’s going to...