Groups Ask Murphy to Veto Nuclear Subsidy Bill
Groups Ask Murphy to Veto Nuclear Subsidy Bill
Groups including consumers, labor unions and environmental advocates have signed on to a letter asking Governor Murphy to veto or Conditionally Veto the nuclear bailout legislation (S2313). The groups ask for edits including adding transparency and protecting renewable energy and the ratepayers. Groups signed on to the letter include the New Jersey Sierra Club, Environment New Jersey, Chemistry Council of New Jersey, NJ Large Energy Users Coalition, AARP, The Delaware Riverkeeper Network, NJ 11th for Change, SEIU 32 BJ, Communication Workers of America, Banking on NJ, Anti-Poverty Network, NJ Policy Perspective, Health Professionals & Allied Employees, Main Street Alliance, NJ Citizen Action, NJ Working Families Alliance, UU Faith Action NJ, BlueWave NJ, Green Faith, and Clean Water Action.
“We’re asking Governor Murphy to veto this bill or CV it to add transparency and accountability. This bill would hand PSEG a $3 billion subsidy for their nuclear plants that don’t need funding. The whole bill is just an excuse to subsidize the nuclear power plants. PSEG are getting $300 million a year whether they need it or not. We should not be moving forward with this nuclear subsidy deal when PSEG will get $800 million in subsidies from Trump’s tax cut. PSEG even just finally admitted that these subsidies would help plants outside of the state, including Peach Bottom in Pennsylvania. This legislation would undermine renewable energy and hurt the ratepayers of New Jersey,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.
Groups are asking the Governor to veto the legislation or CV it to include important changes. We believe that any subsidies PSEG gets from other sources, including the federal government, should offset the amount they receive from New Jersey ratepayers. They must be able to prove that they are financially in need of the subsidies and are not wasting ratepayer money. Any financial gain to the plants or increases in market prices generally due to the pricing of carbon that result from the State rejoining RGGI should also be credited against the ratepayer subsidies.
“The nuclear bailout legislation on Gov. Murphy’s desk is wrongheaded. Committing $300 million a year for an unlimited time period to aging nuclear power plants with a lack of financial transparency doesn’t make sense. Ratepayers have at least three billion reasons to be skeptical and we urge Gov. Murphy to work to fix this egregious bill and send it back to the Legislature,” said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey.
Groups are also asking for edits to make the bill more transparent and have more scrutiny. We believe it needs language to protect workers and prevent out-of-state facilities from receiving subsidies. We have believe that the subsidies must require an annual financial review, clawback provisions, a ten-year sunset provision, and clear participation by the NJ Division of Rate Council. We must also make sure that when these plants close, they are dedicated to being replaced with renewable energy.
“New Jersey manufacturing businesses already pay electric bills over 50% higher than companies across the country and the nuclear credit bill will raise electricity prices by $150,000 to over $1 million per year on businesses already struggling to remain in New Jersey. We are not against nuclear power but if Governor Murphy is going to require New Jersey’s citizens and businesses to pay this tax he must ensure that it is absolutely necessary and this bill does not give him or the taxpayers that guarantee. PSEG has demonstrated that more taxpayer safeguards need to be added to this legislation,” said Dennis Hart, Executive Director, Chemistry Council of NJ.
Under energy deregulation these plants received billions in subsidies as Stranded Assests, despite the plants being profitable. They received hundreds of millions more from the ratepayers via Nuclear Plant Closure funds. Currently the three major nuclear power plants in NJ have made the auction and are financially profitable. The fourth, Oyster Creek, usually makes auction but is scheduled to close in 2020. Two of the plants looking for subsidies, Salem 1 and 2, operate without cooling towers to mitigate for fish kills. We have given them billions already that they’ve used to kill billions of fish a year.
“At a time when it is making a concerted effort to attract new businesses to New Jersey, the State should not be authorizing unnecessary $3 billion bailouts that benefit a single, very profitable company like PSE&G literally to the detriment of all others. Taken together with the 450% increase in PSE&G’s transmission rates since 2009, the pending petition to significantly raise its electric and natural gas distribution rates, the $1.6 billion recently awarded for modernization of PSE&G’s gas infrastructure, and its anticipated multi-billion dollar energy efficiency and Energy Strong initiatives, the extraordinary nuclear subsidy could bring the State’s existing large businesses to the breaking point. The nuclear subsidies alone will cost large businesses, as well as hospital systems, colleges and universities, and the State itself, millions or more per year for 10 long years. The combined effect of PSE&G’s other initiatives could easily double this exposure. These types of costs are extremely difficult to rationalize to company managements, particularly those that are in a position to locate their facilities in other states with lower energy costs. A more effective way to dissuade businesses from staying in or locating to New Jersey would be hard to imagine,” said Steven Goldenberg, NJ Large Energy Users Coalition.
PSEG was fined $39 million by FERC for lying in their cost-bidding scheme for almost a decade. FERC almost never goes after utilities, so this shows how serious the situation is. PSEG even just finally admitted that these subsidies would help plants outside of the state, including Peach Bottom in Pennsylvania.
“On behalf of AARP NJ’s 1.3 million Garden State ratepayers, we urge the Governor to speak truth to power – PSEG Power — and conditionally veto this this deeply flawed nuclear tax legislation, ” said Evelyn Liebman, AARP NJ Director of Advocacy. “The bill that is on the Governor’s desk fails to ensure fair, open and transparent government therefore failing to ensure reasonable rates and even fails to ensure those of us who would foot the bill have our statutorily established representative in the room – the NJ Division of Rate Counsel. New Jerseyans, particularly seniors and those living on low and moderate incomes can ill afford to shoulder unnecessary rate hikes to increase profits and should not be required to subsidize out-of-state consumers and corporations.”
