Victory: Nuclear Subsidies Bill HELD

The bill for nuclear subsidies, S3560 (Sweeney/Smith), has been removed from tomorrow’s Senate agenda and we believe held until next year. This bill supports Chris Christie’s negotiations to give PSEG subsidies for their nuclear plants in New Jersey. Under this bill, PSEG could start receiving subsidies within a year, despite being profitable enough to have bid into auction. It also includes subsidies to fix up their plants. The bill goes minimally through 2030 but can be extended. The bill has been worked on behind-the-scenes with little opportunity for public examination and input. The bill is not yet up in the Assembly.

“This bill being held is a big win for the people and environment of New Jersey. The public’s outrage over the bill that would give PSEG subsidies has led to this bill being moved in the Legislature. This is especially important because by then, we will have the Murphy Administration in charge. Phil Murphy has committed to a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2050. This bill would subsidize nuclear power at the expense of the ratepayers and undermine this renewable energy goal in New Jersey,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We are happy to see this terrible subsidy bill stopped. Now we can move forward with 100% renewable energy by 2050. This is not only a win for the ratepayers, but a victory for renewable energy and green economy.”

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.

“Any time you can stop a bill in lame duck that’s wired to go through, is really a victory for the people. PSEG says they’re green but the only thing green about them is the money they want from ratepayers. They’ve already received billions in subsidies and now they want more. The Salem plants kill billions of fish a year because PSEG has lobbied to prevent them from having to build cooling towers. That is in itself another environmental subsidy. They dump superheated water into the Bay, hurting water quality and killing fish. They can’t be green with that much uranium mining pollution and nuclear waste,” said Jeff Tittel.

New Jersey used to be a leader in clean energy until Governor Christie was elected. Before he came in office, there were 11,000 solar jobs in the state, but now there are only 6,000. We used to do forty megawatts a month and now we’re doing eight. As a result, New Jersey has dropped from and 2nd to 8th in solar in the nation. He has tried to subsidize gas power plants and continuously blocked offshore wind. The amount of greenhouse gasses emitted in New Jersey has been increasing in the last couple years.

“This is a victory for New Jersey’s ratepayers and our environment. Governor Christie tried to dictate our state’s energy policy for the next 40 years with this bill. It’s incredibly important that it is not going forward. This way, Phil Murphy and his Administration can work towards their goal of 100% renewable energy by 2050 without being undercut by subsidized nuclear plants. We want to make sure we’re not subsidizing nuclear plants, but more importantly that when the plants close, they need to be replaced by renewable energy,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “Now the next Governor’s hands won’t be tied and we can move forward with a 100% renewable future. We will keep fighting any of these kinds of subsidizes that block that goal.”