The Murphy “Energy Master Plan” is quickly turning into a major fuck-up, and you can’t say we didn’t tell you so, Save Jerseyans!
We still haven’t received reliable cost estimate from the Board of Public Utilities years after the plan was green lit. Recently, the plan to make New Jersey carbon neutral by 2050 fell into further doubt when the Northeastern wind industry, which hasn’t really gotten off the ground here in Jersey, began going belly up.
Now? Word’s out that the Murphy Administration is abandoning its plan to mandate the electrification of thousands of Garden State gas-powered boilers; the long-anticipated change isn’t anywhere to be found in the NJDEP’s new “NJ PACT” rules.
Earlier in 2022, the NJDEP admitted it dramatically under-estimated the cost of operating an electric boiler. Rather than a 4.2-4.9% increase over gas boilers, the department corrected itself and raised the estimate to 4.2-4.9 TIMES more. There’s a big difference between % and “times,” but the distinction was apparently lost on Murphy Administration bureaucrats.
“Governor Murphy’s plan to force the replacement of efficient, clean, and cost-effective gas boilers with electric versions short-circuited because it didn’t make any sense,” said State Senator Anthony Bucco (R-25), an outspoken critic of Murphy’s green energy designs. “His plan would have required thousands of businesses, schools, apartment complexes, and government buildings to pay millions each to convert to electric boilers that cost four times as much to operate as existing gas boilers. It would have been a massive and unnecessary cost for both businesses and taxpayers.”
“With the removal of the boiler mandate from NJDEP rules, we just dodged a multi-billion-dollar bullet that business owners, renters, school districts, and local governments couldn’t afford,” Bucco continued. “This is a victory for now, but we need to make sure this proposal isn’t resurrected in the future. We’ll keep fighting to ensure that the other provisions of Governor Murphy’s Energy Master Plan, which would result in tens of thousands of dollars of unnecessary costs for families and homeowners are removed as well.”
