BPU President’s Testimony Contradicts BPU Confidentiality Practices
(Source: ANALYSIS OF NATURAL GAS CAPACITY TO SERVE NEW JERSEY FIRM CUSTOMERS – Redacted Public Version)
Last week, NJ BPU President Joe Fiordaliso testified to the Senate about the Murphy Administration’s clean energy and climate programs.
I had a whole lot of problems with what he said (and didn’t say) that I don’t want to waste my time or yours discussing here, but I got a belly laugh when he said this.
Aggressively responding to criticisms from the business community, Fiordaliso said this: (starting at time 14:50 -emphases mine):
I assure you that the Board identifies the cost of each initiative before they are enacted. …. There is a cost to combating climate change. There has been a concerted effort to scare residents about mandates and costs. And to be clear, the Board has issued no mandates as of this point. We hear that the State has no idea what this will cost, but also we can’t possibly afford it. Let me be absolutely clear. The Board of Public Utilities does not put a program in place without knowing what the impact to the ratepayer will be. Every off shore wind solicitation award has included the ratepayer impact. Our solar proceedings all include cost estimates. The same for energy efficiency or electric vehicles. Now to be perfectly clear, some of these numbers are estimated because they depend on market forces, which can not be predicted with 100% accuracy. But we do not put programs into action without those cost estimates being known and made public.
Keep that Fiordaliso phrase in mind: “cost estimates being known and made public.“
That BPU testimony went unchallenged by Legislators. No one asked about corporate profits. That’s a taboo topic in Trenton. “Market forces” is a euphemism for all that.
So is the issue of regulatory mandates by BPU or the DEP. No one supports “mandates”.
As I wrote, both BPU and DEP ran away from any regulatory mandates.
I guess BPU’s understanding of cost estimates does not include letting corporate profits “be known to the public.”
Why can’t the public know how much they are paying to provide corporate profits, generous CEO and executive pay, and shareholder returns?
Why is that information secret?
Wouldn’t you like to know PSE&G profit margins and the names and job duties of all the executives at PSE&G that make more than $150,000/year?
The redacted document above that keeps actual costs and corporate profits “confidential” is from a study submitted to the BPU: (openly labeled a redacted public version)
NJ Spotlight reported on that study on December 27, 2021, see:
Of course, NJ Spotlight did not report the “confidentiality” of corporate profits in that report – nor did any of the well fed climate cheerleaders Spotlight relies on as sources raise any concerns about corporate profits, secrecy, or the run away from “mandates”.
NJ Spotlight also reported on the February 10 Senate hearing where BPU President Fiordaliso testified, as I excepted above. Spotlight wrote nothing about DEP or BPU mandates or on the secrecy of corporate profits.
Those topics are Taboo in NJ media as well.
As the late writer William Greider wrote: who will tell the people about this?