Item: The U.S. Department of Justice announces Friday that Commonwealth Edison, the leading electric utility in Illinois, will pay a $200 million fine for attempting to bribe the state’s Speaker of the House, Michael Madigan (D).

Item: Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R) and four political operatives are arrested Tuesday and charged in a federal criminal complaint that an energy company paid them $61 million to get a $1.5 billion nuclear bailout from taxpayers.

Two powerful state legislators and their associates. Two giant energy companies. Two statehouses where high-stakes debates over energy policy are commonplace.

What do these developments have to do with Maryland? And are there implications for ratepayers — and for policy, politics and jurisprudence — here?

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