The Benefits of Renewable Energy for New Jersey

Steve Adubato and Bob Gordon, Commissioner, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and Former NJ State Senator, Bergen/Passaic, talk about the role of the BPU and the future goal to make New Jersey 100% reliable on renewable energy. Gordon explains how the offshore wind initiative is going to make a big impact on NJ and how critical it is to work with other states in order to drive economic development.

11/10/18 #226

Excerpt:

"State of Affairs is pleased to welcome Bob Gordon Commissioner one of five commissioners on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and a former distinguished member of the state Senate. Good to see you Bob. Great to be here Describe the role the BPU, Board of Public Utilities to folks. Well the the Board of Public Utilities is charged with assuring the public of of secure sources of energy, and water, and all the key utilities at a reasonable price. Hmm. And so we're very concerned about what happens to the system during storms, where we're trying to be on top of that. We just issued a report criticizing a number of the utilities and making recommendations for approving their response... the response. But we're also at the very center of the governor's renewable energy initiatives. Wind and... Let's clarify that...The governor, I'm sorry to interrupt, Steve Adubato here speaking with Bob Gordon from the BPU. Governor said the goal is very clear, by 2050 our goal is to make New Jersey 100% dependent on renewable energy. Break that down what does it really mean? Well New Jersey's really going to be the leader in this. We hear a lot about New Jersey being...having the highest property taxes, and highest... Can we lead for something good?  This is something good! We're going to be, we're gonna build the largest offshore wind facility in the country. We're aiming to have a hundred percent renewable energy by 2050. We're hoping to have this first wind farm up and running by 2023. 1,100 megawatts... What does that mean? Translate 1,100 megawatts? You know it's tens of thousands of homes. You know we we have the benefit of 15 years of experience in Europe. And Germany today, this shocked me, Germany is now getting more energy from the offshore wind facilities in the North Sea then it's getting from nuclear energy. Which was a major source of power for it. And the costs of these new technologies are dropping, so we're we're very hopeful that we're going to be able to deal with our our climate change challenges. But also do so in a way that's respectful of the ratepayers. And the other great thing about offshore wind, is we're hoping to build a whole new industry in New Jersey. You know we're gonna get the the turbine manufacturers here, and all the companies that's that provide the maintenance and installation operations for these wind farms. You know we're hoping it's gonna be the next..."