Hello, Highlanders. Weekend rant time.
First and foremost – before I go off on a rant, I want to make sure that all of you read an OpEd by West Milford Mayor Bettina Bieri, “Why is West Milford enthusiastic about conforming to the Highlands Regional Master Plan?” I’d also like to ask you to forward it along to your elected municipal officials if your municipality has not yet decided on conformance to the Highlands RMP. Mayor Bieri describes the process and its benefits perfectly. Byram having been the first municipality through the process, I feel it fairly represents our feeling as well. I can only imagine that experience is helping the Highlands Council staff move through conformance even smoother at this time.
Now, without further ado, let me just say this: As a corporate entity, PSE&G suffers from more personalities than “Sybil Dorsett“ in their positions on state energy policy and reliability issues, especially when it comes to their “coal-by-wire” Susquehanna-Roseland project, which slashes across the NJ Highlands. Allow me to explain in greater detail.
As most of you know, I have been one of the fiercest opponents to this excessive and unnecessary project for nearly three years. It amazes me how one hand has no idea what the other hand is doing at PSE&G. We have seen perfect examples of this in their testimony that energy demand is sky-rocketing and a reliable grid is at risk during last year’s BPU hearings vs. statements in other venues on offshore wind and solar programs, efficiency and demand response initiatives, etc.
Let me focus on this latest bit of hypocrisy.
In an article today, Power Points in the Times of Trenton, PSE&G President and CEO Ralph LaRossa is spouting the standard “We do not generate — in New Jersey — enough power to support New Jersey, so we import it” chant that we’ve grown accustomed to over the past few years. Oh, and it also irks me that he is lying by deceiving by saying that solar is six times more expensive than coal. Not so, if you count the REAL costs to society associated with coal, Ralph!
But I digress. If you have been paying attention elsewhere, you will have seen another personality at PSE&G. The greedy, controlling, “I’ll-throw-a-fit-if-I-don’t-get-my-way” one. The NJ legislature recently passed a bill to subsidize an additional 2000 MW of in-state energy generation to help lower energy costs to state residents (see: Christie Administration Quietly Signs Controversial Ratepayer Subsidy Bill). PSE&G and other PJM energy providers have since filed suit to block this legislation. See Wall Street Expects to See Power Plant Construction Bill Overturned and – BPU Looks to Balance Subsidies Against Savings in which it is stated that PSE&G, PJM and others are suing to block this subsidy because they “fear it will severely undercut their capacity payments — the revenue they gain for maintaining the supplies necessary to keep the lights from going out. That challenge was filed by the PJM Providers Group before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), on the grounds there already is enough electricity to meet customers demands.” Amazing. Do we, or do we not have enough generation in NJ?
Additionally, on the third page of the PJM legal challenge (click here for the 2.6MB pdf file), the power companies assert that demand in New Jersey has decreased substantially… “As we explain in detail below, there is a surplus of generation in PJM. In addition, PJM’s new energy forecasts show that demand for electricity has decreased substantially. Strikingly, PJM now predicts that New Jersey will not reach the demand previously forecasted for 2014 until at least 2020.”
So the legal challenge his own company has filed seems to contradict LaRossa’s statement that “we do not generate — in New Jersey — enough power to support New Jersey, so we import it.”
On one hand, we have PJM/PSE&G/PPL saying they need all this energy and transmission capacity because of “increasing demand” and grid reliability issues.
Meanwhile, the other hand – or head, or other appendage – argues that there is already enough energy to meet demand, and that “energy distribution infrastructure within the state is strong.” If infrastructure is strong – and demand is well below PJM forecasts – let’s drop this $1.3 billion waste of ratepayer money and get going with distributed local renewables and demand side management to solve our reliability issues right now. What are we waiting for, Sybil?
Kate Millsaps at NJ Sierra had an excellent letter published in the Daily Record this past week addressing this issue as well. See PSE&G documents show transmission line not needed for Kate’s view on the subject.
Judging by PSE&G’s split-personality behavior, it is becoming increasingly, painfully obvious – as opponents of the Susquehanna-Roseland project have said all along – that corporate greed profit (from Times of Trenton article: “LaRossa said that, as an energy procurer, PSE&G makes a profit from transporting energy as opposed to generating it.”) is the major driving factor for this project, and not skyrocketing demand or a lack of local infrastructure. It’s time for the NJ BPU and Ratepayer’s Advocate to step in and quash this boondoggle once and for all.
But that’s just my opinion – read up and decide for yourselves.