Steven S. Goldenberg
With the issue regarding the propriety of nuclear subsidies — known as Zero Emission Certificates or ZECs — again before the Board of Public Utilities, the predictable PSEG-inspired public drumbeat supporting its nuclear plants has begun. News outlets, including NJ Spotlight News, have recently featured articles and editorials that tout the benefits the nuclear plants confer on the state, and are intended to gin up support for extending the current $300 million annual ratepayer subsidies.
There is no question that the plants provide jobs and environmental, fuel diversity and economic benefits to the state. However, as discussed below, these benefits alone do not establish the plants’ eligibility to receive the more than $800 million in additional subsidies that have been requested, and certainly do not justify PSEG’s effort to require ratepayers to assume responsibility for the costs and risks associated with the plants’ continued operation, a requirement that violates long-standing law. PSEG’s latest exercise in corporate greed and regulatory overreach is particularly ill-suited to the challenging COVID-19 environment, in which struggling ratepayers have accrued $600 million in unpaid utility bills, with increasing numbers forced to seek refuge in the BPU’s temporary moratorium on shut-offs.