Some foes accuse PSEG of jiggering subsidy to reach the $300M – $350M it wanted in first place
Tom Johnson reports for
NJ Spotlight:
With a weekend to digest a bill to prop up New Jersey nuclear plants, foes were left fuming with many objections and one key question: how did advocates come up with the surcharge on customers’ bills?
The levy appears tiny ($0.004 per kilowatt hour), but has huge implications for ratepayers. It could provide anywhere from $300 million to $350 million a year to Public Service Enterprise Group, or at least $1.2 billion in subsidies over an initial four-year period.
“Was that number plucked out of thin air?’’ asked Ev Liebman, associate director of AARP of New Jersey. “We don’t know where that number comes from and there is no justification for it in the bill.’’
The legislation (S-3560), introduced late Thursday evening after a long year of intense lobbying by PSEG, is up for a vote in two legislative committees tomorrow. Unless it obtains financial help for its nuclear units in South Jersey, the company says it will shutter them.
Secret surcharge
The surcharge provision, tucked into a single paragraph in an eight-page bill, reflects a rare legislative intrusion into setting prices in a competitive energy market the state joined nearly two decades ago. Handing out subsidies to a big player in that market is a step that rankles rivals in the energy sector and the customers who will foot the bill.
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