An exit interview with New Jersey energy regulator Bob Gordon

Presented by Attentive Energy One

GORDON GOES — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: Bob Gordon, the former state senator, formally retired from state government this month and left his job at the Board of Public Utilities. In an interview, he reflected on his time at the BPU, which oversees the state’s power, gas, private water and telecom utilities, and is charged with carrying out the bulk of Gov. Phil Murphy’s ambitious clean energy plans.

The most difficult decision he said he made was providing $300 million a year to PSEG to prop up the state’s three nuclear power plants. The process caused massive agita and some expressions of buyer’s remorse by BPU members, including Gordon. Gordon said he didn’t appreciate how the deal came together, with what he felt like was a gun to the board’s head, but he also later found what he called a “a better idea of the bigger picture.” The picture is that the state is spending $300 million a year on nuclear subsidies, but the plants generate about 40 percent of the state’s entire power supply, and 85 percent of its carbon-free energy. At the same time, the state also spends over $800 million to subsidize the solar industry, which provides about 5 percent of the state’s power. “That helped put it all in perspective for me,” Gordon said.

Gordon also discussed offshore wind costs, the way the board works, differences between the BPU and his time as a lawmaker, and what’s next.

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Here’s what we’re watching:

MONDAY

— Groups pushing for a new park at the New Jersey statehouse are doing a walking tour to build support, noon in front of Capitol Fountain, between the statehouse and statehouse annex, 131-137 West State St., Trenton, N.J., 08608

— Attentive Energy One, a joint venture between Rise Light & Power and TotalEnergies, and LaGuardia Community College will be making an announcement about a $10 million partnership to construct a new local clean energy training hub, 3 p.m. at LaGuardia Community College, Room E-242.

— The New Jersey Assembly’s budget committee holds a hearing on the Department of Environmental Protection, 1 p.m.

TUESDAY

— There’s a hearing on the Indian Point decommissioning process, 6 p.m.

— Lawmakers and advocates from the ElectrifyNY coalition will host a virtual rally in support of the Green Transit, Green Jobs Act, 11 a.m. on Zoom.

WEDNESDAY

— NYSERDA meets, with committee meetings starting at 10 a.m.

THURSDAY

— DEC and NYSERDA host a webinar on “Extreme Heat and the Built Environment,” 2 p.m.

— The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey meets.

AROUND NEW YORK

— Newsday: “At the end of this century, Fire Island may be little more than a sandbar separating the Atlantic from Great South Bay.”

— NYT: “A board game challenges players to decarbonize New York City, and energy experts are paying attention.”

— Empire Plaza fish screens installed to keep aquatic life from being sucked up.

— Rethinking Rensselaer’s waterfront.

— There was an earthquake upstate.

— The Prospect Park alligator is dead.

Around New Jersey

— The train that infamously derailed in Ohio was heading to New Jersey.

— Officials highlight community solar.

— Philly Inquirer: “Region’s dry spell intensifies, and the tree pollen is loving it more than allergy sufferers.”

— NJ Monitor: “Representatives from 23 states, including the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, have joined a new collaborative organized by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Officials and the National Association of State Energy Officials intended to help state leaders and regulators answer questions surrounding new nuclear power generation.”

What you may have missed

CLEAN ENERGY HUB — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: New York utility regulators on Thursday approved an $810 million Con Edison facility in Brooklyn, a project that was first pitched by the company as a hub for offshore wind energy but was approved by regulators for other reasons. After a year of back and forth, the New York Public Service Commission ultimately granted Con Ed’s request to complete a major new substation on company property just south of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The project, called the clean energy hub and approved just in time for Earth Day, is now mainly intended to provide reliability for customers in several parts of New York City. Because of changes in the project, the PSC is now making Con Ed customers pay for the entire project, while the company had originally asked that costs be shared with others across the state.

NJ TRANSIT TROUBLES — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: For his six years in office, Gov. Phil Murphy has held up NJ Transit as a success story. He’s hired more train engineers, installed critical safety features and avoided fare increases. But the honeymoon is officially over, and Murphy’s administration is facing a crisis at one of the nation’s largest transit agencies, one responsible for getting many suburbanites into Manhattan. In a forecast the agency is now sending to legislative leaders, transit officials expect to have a $100 million budget gap in the budget that starts next year and, worse, a staggering $900 million budget hole that opens in summer 2025 — Murphy’s final year in office.

DEP TAKES LEAD ON RESILIENCY — POLITICO’s Danielle Muoio Dunn: The city Department of Environmental Protection will assume oversight of resiliency work across the five boroughs, a move city officials said will help accelerate construction and provide greater management of multi-billion construction projects.

ADAMS’ EV PARKING PLEDGE — POLITICO’s Danielle Muoio Dunn: Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday rolled out several initiatives to increase the number of electric vehicles criss-crossing the five boroughs over the next decade, including a new mandate for chargers in parking garages. The new proposals, released in the city’s “PlaNYC” sustainability agenda, reflects the larger national push to cut harmful emissions by getting drivers out of gas-guzzling vehicles. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has proposed strict automobile pollution limits that would require electric vehicles to account for two-thirds of new sales by 2032.

CAPITOL PARK — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: As years of renovations to the New Jersey Statehouse wrap up, there is a movement to have workers do one more thing before they leave: create a capitol park. Murphy administration officials have already started moving into parts of the building that have been under renovation since the end of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration.

NEW NYPA PITCH — POLITICO’s Marie J. French: Negotiations are continuing over a proposal to allow the New York Power Authority to have a broader ability to build and own new renewable energy projects — with the governor’s office circulating a new version earlier this week. Gov. Kathy Hochul included a version of the measure that excluded labor standards, an expanded board and other provisions pushed by supporters of a Senate-passed bill in her executive budget in February. The circulation of new language obtained by POLITICO indicates the issue remains live in negotiations as the budget overtime clock continues for the fiscal year that started April 1.

OFF THE WATERFRONT — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: The Supreme Court will let New Jersey unilaterally exit the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, a bistate police agency created to crack down on corruption immortalized in the Marlon Brando movie “On The Waterfront.” The unanimous decision, issued Tuesday and written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, effectively ends the small agency the two states created in 1953 to go after the mob and corrupt labor practices at the New York-New Jersey container port.

— Radio: Ry joined Capitol Pressroom to talk about the case.

NJ FINALIZES EJ RULE — POLITICO’s Ry Rivard: New Jersey environmental regulators finalized a rule Monday to protect large swaths of the state from power plants and other major sources of pollution. The rule is a long-awaited product of a “holy grail” environmental justice law Gov. Phil Murphy signed in 2020. The rule, which took effect Monday, is designed to keep pollution from eight different kinds of heavy industries out of already polluted low-income areas and communities of color. The rule now applies across 3,500 neighborhoods and other communities in 350 municipalities that are now considered “overburdened,” covering places where about half the state’s population lives.

— Podcast: Ry and POLITICO’s Josh Siegel talk about the first-of-its-kind environmental justice rule New Jersey regulators just adopted.