Supporters, opponents of plan to protect N.J. power grid against storms have say at hearing
Monday September 16, 2013, 9:02 PM
BY DAVE SHEINGOLD
STAFF WRITER
The Record
A multibillion dollar plan to protect part of New Jersey’s power grid against major storms drew a mix of cheers and jeers Monday afternoon, as trade unions, business groups, senior citizens and others turned out at a public hearing to urge its approval or its defeat.
“It seems like a simple choice to me,” said Noel Christmas, a utility workers union leader, imploring state regulators to support the Public Service Electric and Gas Co.’s $3.9 billion Energy Strong proposal. “We can continue react to what Mother Nature dishes out. Or we can act now to better prepare.”
“Rubbish! Rubbish!” countered Ken Lindhorst, 72, of Summit, who was among a group of retirees protesting the proposal as too much of a burden on utility customers. “I’m outraged. Don’t shift the responsibility to ratepayers!”
That was the tenor of the 2½-hour hearing at Essex County College in Newark, as a crowd of about 200 split over whether the state Board of Public Utilities should endorse the first phase of PSE&G’s plan for upgrades. The improvements, which range from moving power stations to strengthening power lines, are aimed at averting the kinds of outages that left customers without electricity for up to two weeks after Superstorm Sandy.
PSE&G says the project would raise the average residential electric bill by 4.5 percent and the gas bill by 5.4 percent over five years, but the company has stressed that the increases would be largely offset with the expiration of special surcharges currently on bills. PSE&G, the state’s largest power provider, serves 2.2 million customers throughout northern and central New Jersey, including 600,000 in Bergen and Passaic countie