Utility giant Public Service Enterprise Group filed its application on Thursday with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities for its second year of public ratepayer subsidies for its nuclear plants in Salem County.
The applications for what are known as zero-emission certificates, or ZECs, mark the second year of $300 million, for a $900 million three-year subsidy. They are paid for by ratepayers as a surcharge on their utility bills. They were approved last year by the NJBPU for its three Salem County nuclear plants, after having been signed into law by a measure Gov. Phil Murphy signed in May 2018.
PSEG warned that without the subsidies, it could not afford to stay open in New Jersey and threatened to close the three plants, which make up 90 percent of its carbon-free electricity generation in New Jersey.
The abundance of much cheaper natural gas had been particularly devastating for the nuclear energy sector, contended PSEG, which produces roughly 40 percent of the state’s electricity.
Richard T. Thigpen, Senior Vice President – Corporate Citizenship, PSEG – MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY
“Nuclear energy already is New Jersey’s largest source of carbon-free electricity. No other energy source currently comes close,” PSEG Senior Vice President for Corporate Citizenship Rick Thigpen said in a Thursday statement. “New Jersey can only achieve its ambitious clean energy goals with nuclear energy in the mix.”
But NJBPU staff recommended against approving the state aid, saying their findings concluded that PSEG had no need for any relief.
The board commissioners reluctantly approved the measure, saying that the 2018 legislation creating the $300 million of subsidies practically forced them to approve PSEG’s bid.
That generated considerable controversy from opponents of the nuclear subsidy.
“This nuclear subsidy is just a regressive tax on working families and a huge subsidy for a company that doesn’t need it,” Jeff Tittel, state director for the environmental advocacy group the New Jersey Sierra Club, said in a Thursday statement.
“Families are struggling to pay taxes and their electric bills keep going up. PSEG keeps raising rates on them so they can boost their profits even higher.”
Critics such as the New Jersey Rate Counsel and PJM Independent Monitor argued that the amount PSEG would need to keep its three plants afloat would be much lower than what they were asking for.
“Everybody who was taking a look at this is saying that they are in fact financially viable and they are in fact making money,” NJ Rate Counsel Director Stefanie Brand said last year.
