The Sierra Club, the environmental organization that has been the most strident critic of
New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie’s Administration, today turned its green
guns on the state’s Board of Public Utilities.
“Today the Board of
Public Utilities (BPU) held their first meeting following the major failure of
our grid and utilities to handle the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Instead of
trying to figure out what happened the BPU spent more time on public relations
than they actually did on public policy or real oversight on what happened,” Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittel said in a news release.
“Over 2.5 million
residents lost power following Hurricane Sandy and the BPU was virtually
invisible during the recovery. The agency did not hold any press conferences,
public announcements or information sessions. Their response was an
outrageous failure of government and we need more oversight of the
utilities,” Tittle charged.
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| Jeff Tittel – Photo by Jim Pathe (Star-Ledger) |
He said that the BPU “was trying to put a good face on their failure of
leadership when
it came to responses to the impacts of the storm.”
“They spent
more time saying how well prepared the utilities were when that doesn’t even
meet the straight face test. Virtually everyone in New Jersey saw the failures
and incompetence by the utilities,” Tittel said.
BPU, the ‘Board of Promoting Utilities,’ Tittel said the agency seems “to care more about
utilities making money than protecting customers and rate payers.”
has been a complete power failure from them in holding utilities accountable
for blackouts,” he said.
Tittel called for “an
independent investigation to examine into the response of
the BPU and the utilities in the storm and what oversight, transparency, and
regulatory changes should be made.”
“Governor Cuomo has called for such a
panel in New York state and we should have one here as well,” he said.
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