Trenton, NJ – Clean Water Action joined AARP, the Anti-Poverty Network, small businesses and large industrial energy users to call on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) and Governor Murphy to protect ratepayers, public health, private property and the environment at a statehouse press conference following NJBPU’s monthly meeting this morning.
The groups estimate PSE&G, JCP&L, ACE, Elizabethtown Gas, South Jersey Gas, NJ Natural Gas, et al. are in process of seeking rate hikes that could surpass $12 billion. Clean Water Action issued the following statement:
“New Jersey’s electric and gas utilities led by PSE&G see ratepayers as a bottomless trough to feed off of at the additional expense of private property, public health and the environment,” stated Clean Water Action’s David Pringle. “BPU needs to look at cumulative impacts in dollars and emissions, carve out the fat, and approve only those aspects that are consistent with the 2007 Global Warming Response Act (80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050), 2018 Clean Energy Act (50% class I renewables by 2030), and Governor Murphy’s EO 28 (100% clean energy by 2050). “
“Corporations aren’t going to say no to lining their own pockets with a public handout. That’s government’s job and just as Governor Murphy is saying no to undeserved profit from corporate tax incentives, he needs to apply the same fiscal discipline and tax fairness here.”
“When NJ’s Ratepayer Advocate and PJM’s Independent Market Monitor join with this coalition against a $3 billion handout to profitable PSE&G to keep operating nuclear power plants, you know the answer needs to be no.”
“When it comes to ending the raids on the Clean Energy Fund and prioritizing $300 million for electric vehicles and related infrastructure (S2252/A4819: Smith, Greenstein, Benson, Pinkin, Kennedy) spent fairly, you know the answer needs to be yes.”
“That’s how we make a stronger, fairer New Jersey.”
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Clean Water Action has more than 150,000 members statewide in New Jersey and is the nation's largest grassroots group focused on water, energy and environmental health. 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. www.cleanwater.org/nj