Murphy BPU Kills Scores Of Solar Projects For Missed Bureaucratic Deadlines, While Fossil LNG And Other Development Get Routine Extensions Of Expiring Permits

And NJ “Climate Activists” Have No Real Problem With That

I need to make a quick note on another example of horrible climate and energy policy by the Murphy administration, if only to cut through the green cover provided by NJ’s “climate activists” (AKA Murphy cheerleaders).

Let me be specific – I am referring to this quote by “big picture” Doug O’Malley, responding to the Murphy BPU’s cancellation of 37 solar projects: (NJ Spotlight)

“The big picture is New Jersey is behind its solar goals,’’ said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey. “It has been a tough pandemic for the solar sector.  “The best place to put these projects is on brownfields and landfills and community solar,’’ he said.

So let me clarify and condemn that crap: (read the BPU Order)

The Murphy BPU has made a horribly short sighted decision and it based that decision on absurd and false grounds and assumptions. (NJ Spotlight):

The transition to the new solar program set up by the BPU will help alleviate the financial burden on ratepayers, according to Fiordaliso. “At a certain point, as an industry matures … it needs to stand on its own two feet,’’ he said.

BPU Commissioner Bob Gordon agreed, saying governments must look at the incentives it provides to an emerging industry. “At some point, the risk is subsidizing inefficiency,’’ he said. “That’s not what we want to do.’’

This false notion of “standing on one’s own two feet” is some kind of right wing retrograde John Wayne individual self reliance mythology.

And missing arbitrary bureaucratic deadlines due to COVID pandemic and supply chain disruptions has NOTHING to do with “subsidizing inefficiency”. Bob Gordon has lost his mind.

Let’s not forget that we’re in a climate emergency and the Murphy administration is far behind their own modest solar capacity goals.

Worse, the cancellation of solar projects for failure to meet BPU’s arbitrary bureaucratic deadlines – for events beyond the control of solar developers – contradicts a recent 3 year extension of expired permits for a massive fossil LNG Export plant being developed on the Delaware River, see:

• Despite Gov. Murphy’s Vow To Stop The Project, DRBC Extends Expired Approvals And Fortress Energy Remains “Fully Committed” To LNG Export Plant On Delaware River

The Murphy administration not only green lighted that extension, the Murphy DEP actually proposed an entirely new regulatory framework to support the LNG export project by “repurposing” underground “caverns” to store more fossil gas at the LNG plant site, see:

• Murphy DEP Fossil “Cavern” Storage Rules Linked To Proposed Delaware River LNG Export Project

The Murphy administration has bent over backwards to promote fossil and nuclear subsidies – the Gov. could have picked up the phone and called BPU President Joe F. and told him to extend those solar approvals.

(Joe F. is no virgin. He bent over many times for Gov. Christie to approve multiple major fossil projects, including pipelines, power plants, compressor stations and BPU subsidies. For egregious examples of Joe’s “go along to get along” fossil whoring, see this and this and this and this.)

The BPU’s cancellation of solar projects contradicts longstanding NJ bi-partisan legislative policy on extending the expiration of regulatory approvals that impact development projects. The NJ legislature has passed several “Permit Extension Acts”, most recently, see:

• Gov. Christie Relies on Slogans to Sign Permit Extension Act

The BPU’s cancellation of solar projects contradicts longstanding regulatory policy and practice of the DEP, who regularly issue renewals and pro forma extend expiring permits and even raise expired permits from the dead – including even expired or expiring regulations.

For climate activists, solar advocates, and the NJ press corps to give Gov. Murphy a pass on this bureaucratic bullshit and try to make it a matter of “winners and losers” is a fucking disgrace. (please excuse my French!)