Two Environmental Groups File with BPU to Block PSE&G Grid Upgrade

In a filing last week with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, the New Jersey Sierra Club and the New Jersey Environmental Federation argued that the agency should focus on enhancing efforts to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy, and distributed generation -- where electricity is produced and consumed locally. The intervention, if granted by the BPU, would probably make what already has been a contentious rate case even more so. Despite the high cost of the initiative, even regulatory officials concede that the state must take steps to prevent 7 million people from losing power in extreme storms, which is what happened during Hurricane Sandy last October.

Public Service Electric & Gas filed the case in February. Its petition quickly sparked criticism from advocacy groups representing senior citizens, large energy consumers, and consumer advocates, all of whom fear it will raise New Jersey energy bills, which already are among the highest in the nation.

PSE&G argues that rates, for the most part, would remain flat even with the expenditures because of historically low natural gas prices and the winding down of other surcharges on electric bills stemming from the deregulation of the energy sector more than a decade ago.

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