Read this lead sentence from Tom Johnson’s piece in today’s Star-Ledger and tell me that New Jersey’s energy deregulation program is operating as advertised:
For the second consecutive year, New Jersey consumers will see double-digit increases in their electricity bills come June.
The numbers look like this:
Jersey Central Power & Light customers will see their bills jump by 14 percent, or $13.30 a month, pushing the average monthly bill to $106.72. Customers of Public Service Electric & Gas, the state’s largest utility, will be hit with an 11.7 percent increase, or $10.86 more a month, increasing the average monthly tab to $103.65.
The Asbury Park Press reports that the increase will fall under the microscope of state Public Advocate Ronald Chen:
State Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen said his office is commited to examining
the state’s system for buying electricity.The “announcement by the Board of Public Utilities that there is yet another substantial increase in the cost of electricity in New Jersey is going to hit families and business hard,” Chen said in a statement.
The issue, at base, is whether the deregulation plan crafted several years ago is the boon to consumers that its sponsors claimed at the time.
That was the question I raised nearly four years ago in a Dispatches column, and it remains the questions today. My utility bills have jumped by about 50 percent over the last half dozen years, driven partly by the steep increase in natural gas, but also by the end of electricty rate caps.
New Jersey’s approach has been a disaster for the collective pocketbook of consumers. The debate needs to be reopened and reregulation placed back on the table. A deregulated marketplace might be the best approach — though I doubt it — but the system we are working with now certainly is not.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
Hank Kalet 