Why Is NJ Spotlight Running Cover For PSE&G Profits And Banning Readers Who Expose The Spin?

Banned by NJ Spotlight

For an increasing number of Californians, the 20th century illusions about “the American way of life” have been lost in the dark of de-electrified homes with shut-off water, and gone up in the smoke of raging wildfires that extend to the horizons. ~~~ MANUEL GARCÍA, JR.

I’m on the lovely California coast right now, hemmed in by wildfires and power blackouts to the north and south. More climate chaos.

The combination of the wildfires and the blackouts – on top of last year’s deadly fires and longstanding PG&E negligence and greed – has spawned huge public outrage.

Even California Gov. Newsom is a harsh critic of PG&E, literally ranting in the media about PG&E greed, mismanagement, arrogance, and negligence.

I had a lengthy discussion with an activists from Extinction Rebellion yesterday in which I suggested that the timing was right to marshall public outrage and Gov. Newsom’s rants on a campaign & action to demand that the Legislature buy out all bankrupt corporate criminal PG&E stock – trading for just $6 per share, down from over $50 in recent weeks – extinguish the corporation, and create a public power authority to phase out fossil and transition to 100% renewables. Bernie Sanders’ Green New Deal Plan calls for public power, so there could link their campaign to Sander’s proposal.

So, I was scratching my head this morning upon reading the latest in NJ Spotlight’s – “all the good news that our Foundation and corporate funders feel is fit to print” – coverage of environmental and energy issues, which today was about a royal PSE&G ripoff parading under corporate euphemisms like “decoupling” and “resilience”.

NJ is not suffering from wildfires and blackouts (yet), but Jersey did get slammed by Sandy, PSE&G has killed people, and more recently folks were screwed by a PSEG hostage taking nuke bailout, so there’s certainly no drought of issues to spawn and focus public outrage to NJ’s largest corporate energy pirate, PSE&G.

But, curiously, NJ is not responding like the people, Governor and media of California are.

That’s because NJ is suffering from corruption, failed political leadership – Gov. Murphy is not railing against PSE&G greed and the Legislature is giving them billion dollar bailouts – and a lame press corps who is not writing the real story but instead is running cover stories.

Today’s NJ Spotlight story on energy efficiency is just the latest example of that.

NJ Spotlight headline writer finds

“There’s an inherent contradiction baked into the state’s 2018 Clean Energy Act.”

But, as we previously wrote, there is no “contradiction baked into” the NJ law, known as the “Clean Energy Act”.

That statute is consistent. It very clearly provides that corporate power companies are to be compensated, how much they are to be compensated, and how they are to be compensated.

The law mandated that BPU impose a special new “surcharge” to guarantee “full recovery” of “revenue impact of sales losses resulting from implementation of the energy efficiency”, see:

“Each electric public utility and gas public utility shall file annually with the board a petition to recover on a full and current basis through a surcharge all reasonable and prudent costs incurred as a result of energy efficiency programs and peak demand reduction programs required pursuant to this section, including but not limited to recovery of and on capital investment, and the revenue impact of sales losses resulting from implementation of the energy efficiency and peak demand reduction schedules, which shall be determined by the board pursuant to section 13 of P.L.2007, c.340 (C.48:3-98.1).

Get that?

Private corporations are guaranteed to recover all reductions in revenues and profits from energy efficiency, and you pay for it.

The contradiction is “baked into” the PSEG corporate business model – where the greedy demand for monopoly profits contradict public policies to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Reporter Tom Johnson again ignores all that. (We previously criticized his spin).

Instead, Johnson writes not about what the law actually says and greedy PSE&G corporate profits.

To Mr. Johnson, “revenue” (i.e. your money) is needed and directed to keeping the lights on (i.e. “resilience”). Note how corporate profits are not mentioned here:

The stumbling block, and a familiar one to advocates on both sides of the issue, is how to achieve those savings; who should oversee the programs; and how utilities ought to be compensated for programs that reduce energy sales, trimming the revenue they collect to keep their systems resilient.

Which takes me to my final point.

I was banned from commenting by NJ Spotlight. (See above screen shot).

I sent editor John Mooney an email to ask why – on what basis and factual evidence did Spotlight ban me. Mooney has not replied.

I very likely was banned preemptively to avoid my prior criticism  of PSE&G greed and NJ Spotlight’s lame coverage from reaching readers of today’s story.

In the alternate, the ban also could be based on a comment I posted on yesterday’s story, where I wrote that the responsible PSE&G officials should be indicted for murder and linked to this post for an explanation:

• Corporate Murder In Newark, New Jersey

That, my friends, is total bullshit, but it is also quite revealing of exactly what is going on.

When a news outlet bans a commenter for providing fact based informed and sometimes expert opinions, then we’re over the rainbow, folks. Corporate control of content. Period.

My ban is especially egregious, when Spotlight allows all sorts of outrageous comments to post, including by climate deniers, Trump “fake news” puppets, and various and sundry racists, xenophobes and know nothings.