$300M bailout for N.J. nuke plants extended, which keeps increase to your bills
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This file photo shows the Hope Creek cooling tower, owned by PSE&G and Exelon in Alloways Creek Township on, Thursday, June 19, 2014. The state Board of Public Utilities decided Tuesday to continue $300 million annual subsidies to the plants. (Staff Photo by Joe Warner | For the Star-Ledger)
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New Jersey energy customers can expect an increase on their electric bills to stick around after the state Board of Public Utilities on Tuesday approved a second round of subsidies for three aging nuclear power plants.
PSEG Applauds BPU s Decision to Extend Zero Emission Certificates (ZECs) for an Additional Three Years to New Jersey s Nuclear Plants
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NEWARK, N.J., April 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ Today, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) unanimously voted to extend the Zero Emission Certificates (ZECs) for New Jersey s three nuclear power plants, Hope Creek and Salem 1 and 2, for an additional three years.
In 2018, the New Jersey Legislature and Gov. Phil Murphy enacted legislation that established a Zero Emission Certificate program to preserve nuclear plants that provide more than 90% of the state s carbon-free electricity. In the state s Energy Master Plan and the Department of Environmental Protection s Global Warming Response Act 80x50 report, New Jersey indicated its intent to preserve its carbon-free nuclear generating resources into the 2050s to meet its 100% clean energy goals.
Credit: peretzp via Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0
File photo: Hope Creek nuclear plant
The state is poised once again to decide whether to subsidize New Jersey’s three remaining nuclear power plants, but unlike two years ago, the question is not so much about whether ratepayers should fund the program, but how much they should pay.
Public Service Enterprise Group, the operator of the three plants in South Jersey, is urging state regulators to approve another yearly subsidy at the same level of roughly $300 million, awarded in April 2019. This time, however, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities can reduce the level of subsidy, an option not available previously to the annoyance of a couple of BPU commissioners, who nevertheless went along with approving the subsidy anyway.
Solar panel
They will generate a combined 2.9 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually enough to power more than 350 local homes and apartments and prevent more than 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere every year.
And the two solar projects in Teterboro and Pennsauken, delivered last week by Solar Landscape, will sell 51% of the electricity produced to low- and moderate-income households.
It’s all part of an ambitious goal by the Asbury Park-based company to deliver enough electricity to power more than 3,000 New Jersey homes for the next 20 years.
The two new community solar projects allow residents of Pennsauken and bordering townships, as well as all of Bergen County, the opportunity to participate in the benefits of clean solar energy without the need for solar panels on their rooftops, Solar Landscape officials said.
Cities Confront Climate Challenge: How to Move from Gas to Electricity?
Ending the use of fossil fuels to heat homes and buildings is a key challenge for cities hoping to achieve net-zero emissions. Nowhere is that more evident than in Philadelphia, where technical and financial hurdles and a reluctant gas company stand in the way of decarbonization.
In 1836, Philadelphians mostly used whale oil and candles to light their homes and businesses. That year, the newly formed Philadelphia Gas Works caused a stir when it lit 46 downtown street lamps with gas made from coal in its plant on the Schuylkill River. By the end of the Civil War, public thoroughfares and private dwellings in the core of most large Eastern cities were illuminated by gas, supplied through cast iron pipes buried beneath the busy streets and the whale oil lighting industry was nearly dead.