Pablo Willis, pablo.willis@sierraclub.org
Trenton, New Jersey - Today, the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council will submit public comments to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, highlighting the burdensome costs and devastating climate consequences of the recent federal intervention in the PJM capacity market to prop up uneconomic fossil fuel generation and undercut clean energy in the region. The groups’ comments explain how the new federal policies stand in the way of the Garden State’s clean energy goals, and will recommend New Jersey take control of its energy future to protect and preserve it’s clean energy economy, and leave the regional capacity market. if.
“New Jersey has a bustling clean energy economy that provides our state with thousands of solar and wind energy jobs, and strong public health benefits to our residents,” said Jeff Tittel, Executive Director of Sierra Club’s New Jersey Chapter. “The new federal policy being forced on us will not only hamper our clean energy development, but it will prop up old, uneconomic coal and gas plants that make our residents sick and contribute to the climate crisis. It’s ridiculous, and we will not stand for it.”
According to the recent Grid Strategies report, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) decision to implement the MOPR on the PJM capacity market, which New Jersey is a part of, could cost consumers as much as an additional $2.6 billion each year in the first ten years. This is a dramatic increase over the already staggering amount those consumers are paying for capacity. New Jersey electricity customers would see an increase in costs and suffer the health consequences of increased pollution from fossil fuel generators within their own borders, and from neighboring states.
“Our state has a bright future with utility scale and residential solar arrays, and offshore wind farms, and we will not let Trump’s appointed FERC commissioners tell us what our energy and environment policies can be,” said Tittel. “New Jersey wants affordable, clean energy for our homes and businesses, and if that means we’ll have to leave our regional capacity market to have it, then that is just what we will have to do.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.