Clean Water Action Hails Senate Appropriations Committee for Putting New Jersey on Renewable Energy Path

By Putting the Brakes on a $300 Million Bailout to PSE&G

Trenton, NJ–New Jersey lawmakers took a solid step toward setting the state on a renewable energy future by putting the brakes on a controversial $30 million bailout for the benefit of PSE&G stockholders.

The bailout would have been a stumbling block for Governor Philip Murphy’s plan to achieve a 21st Century renewable energy future for New Jersey.

“We commend the foresight of legislators today,” said Amy Goldsmith, Clean Water Action, State Director. “The first order of business to achieving New Jersey’s energy future should not be a ratepayer bailout to a profitable company, PSE&G, but convening a fully transparent and deliberative process to create the road map for achieving 100% renewables by 2050. Once we know what we need to do to get there, then and only then should the legislature act to ensure the state’s success.”

The highly controversial bill, S877, was sponsored by Senator Stephen Sweeney (S-Gloucester) and Senator Robert Smith (D-Middlesex). It essentially mirrors a former bill that would give up to $30 million in subsidies to PSE&G that was not approved in lame duck session.

“The original bill gave the shaft to ratepayers, and so would the latest version, which has gotten worse and not better with each iteration,” added Goldsmith. “It would have locked us in to a dirty energy path. Shame on any legislator who would support that. New Jersey’s economic future would best be served by bolstering renewable industry statewide.”

“We should be manufacturing wind turbines and solar panels right here in New Jersey and making this state a renewable energy leader,” said Goldsmith, adding that an off-shore wind plan under former Governor Jon Corzine called for the manufacture of wind turbine blades in Paulsboro, in southern New Jersey. “We got horribly off-track under the Christie Administration, and the ramification of the bailout bill would have made it much worse.”

In pushing the bill out of the Senate Environment Committee, Sweeney and Smith both used arguments pushed by the nuclear lobby, mistakenly classifying nuclear energy as clean energy.

“With all due respect, the senators were wrong,” said Jeffrey Brown, a member of the Clean Water Action science advisory committee. “Just because you cannot see, taste, or smell nuclear emissions does not make the energy source clean or renewable.”

All nuclear plants emit a cocktail of nucleotides, including Strontium-90, radioactive iodine, and Cesium 137, that remain highly radioactive for thousands of years. They enter human bodies through breathing and the food chain. Each kills or damages healthy cells leading to cancer and other diseases. We shouldn’t be putting any resources into shoring up a Frankenstein, the nuclear industry.”

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Since our founding during the campaign to pass the landmark Clean Water Act in 1972, Clean Water Action has worked to win strong health and environmental protections by bringing issue expertise, solution-oriented thinking and people power to the table. We will protect clean water in the face of attacks from a polluter friendly Administration and Congress. Clean Water Action has 150,000 members in NJ and nearly 1 million nationwide. www.cleanwater.org/nj