After months of political posturing, legal maneuvering, strong-arm tactics and heated rhetoric, Constellation Energy Group and Electricité de France on Monday moved toward accepting the conditions imposed by Maryland's Public Service Commission on the proposed sale of half of Constellation's nuclear business, resulting in an agreement that looks like a good deal for Baltimore Gas and Electric customers - and the $100 rate credits they are to receive are the least of it.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, in an effort to make good on his campaign pledge to fight for ratepayers, has focused much of his rhetoric on two issues: attempting to get cash for BGE customers out of the deal, and seeking to force Constellation to cut Chief Executive Officer Mayo A. Shattuck III's paycheck. In the context of the politics of utility rates, that threatened to quash a deal that, with the right conditions, could be beneficial to the state. Fortunately, the PSC focused instead on the more substantive, if less sexy, concessions the O'Malley administration sought from the company in the deal, provisions the commission said "will yield more for ratepayers in the long term than any rebate."