An amendment recently approved by the New Jersey Assembly has upset the PJM cartel's apple cart and spells more bad news for the hugely unpopular PATH project. This article and this post on Calhoun Power Line does a great job of explaining what's going on here. In a nutshell, New Jersey wants to increase subsidies to encourage the building of new generation within its borders. If New Jersey expanded home-grown generation and produced enough power to meet its own needs, what use is PATH? New Jersey has said again and again that they don't want or need PATH's dirty coal-fired power. However, the PJM cartel has consistently backed this project, even to the point of sullying their own reputation with accusations of bias and conflict of interest. As we've discussed before, PJM is wholly controlled by a few bullies within its ranks, whose corporate profit margins are of the utmost importance, to the detriment of both "reliability" and the wallets of PJM's ratepayers.
According to the article, PJM is expected to run crying to FERC like a kid whose lollipop has been taken away. Boo Hoo, boys! FERC isn't as friendly to your cartel as it once was. And guess what? The citizens know your game now!
The article also quotes some whining about rate increases. These subsidies could cost up to a billion dollars. What does PATH importing power to New Jersey cost us in rate increases? More than $2.1 billion! Continuing to import power instead of generating it within their own borders also has a huge cost that they fail to consider.
Notice also that the whole "jobs" thing gets brought up. That really doesn't do any favors for the arguments of transmission proponents. "Opponents said the argument about job creation is a red herring, saying that it will create hundreds of temporary construction jobs, but typically only 20 to 30 people will be needed to run the plants once they are operational." Precisely! PATH will create a few temporary jobs (which will be filled in large part by out-of-state technical specialists) and after that, it's over. It will only take a few people to maintain after its built.
In some of the other articles about what's going on in New Jersey, the word "Enron" gets a mention. That right there should be enough for pause. The PJM cartel's focus on energy trading is a dangerous game that has always made little sense.
Way back in 2008, I attended a meeting in Shepherdstown engineered by our now-Senator Joe Manchin. Joe was annoyed that Patience Wait and I had been dogging him during campaign season for his second term as governor. In order to shut us up (which failed miserably -- we're still here!) he summoned all his bigwig friends at the power companies to come here and meet with us and a group of citizens we gathered from within the ranks of newly forming citizen opposition groups. At that meeting, we questioned why the answer to the east coast's electricity shortages were transmission lines from West Virginia. "We (PJM) can't order new generation, we can only order new transmission." and "Building of new generation keys off market demand." Sounded like crap at the time (walked out of there scraping brown, smelly stuff off the bottom of my shoes) and it's still crap. PJM still "can't order new generation" because, for them, transmission and increasing profits for their most powerful cartel members is what it's all about. Enron. It's the word.
According to the article, PJM is expected to run crying to FERC like a kid whose lollipop has been taken away. Boo Hoo, boys! FERC isn't as friendly to your cartel as it once was. And guess what? The citizens know your game now!
The article also quotes some whining about rate increases. These subsidies could cost up to a billion dollars. What does PATH importing power to New Jersey cost us in rate increases? More than $2.1 billion! Continuing to import power instead of generating it within their own borders also has a huge cost that they fail to consider.
Notice also that the whole "jobs" thing gets brought up. That really doesn't do any favors for the arguments of transmission proponents. "Opponents said the argument about job creation is a red herring, saying that it will create hundreds of temporary construction jobs, but typically only 20 to 30 people will be needed to run the plants once they are operational." Precisely! PATH will create a few temporary jobs (which will be filled in large part by out-of-state technical specialists) and after that, it's over. It will only take a few people to maintain after its built.
In some of the other articles about what's going on in New Jersey, the word "Enron" gets a mention. That right there should be enough for pause. The PJM cartel's focus on energy trading is a dangerous game that has always made little sense.
Way back in 2008, I attended a meeting in Shepherdstown engineered by our now-Senator Joe Manchin. Joe was annoyed that Patience Wait and I had been dogging him during campaign season for his second term as governor. In order to shut us up (which failed miserably -- we're still here!) he summoned all his bigwig friends at the power companies to come here and meet with us and a group of citizens we gathered from within the ranks of newly forming citizen opposition groups. At that meeting, we questioned why the answer to the east coast's electricity shortages were transmission lines from West Virginia. "We (PJM) can't order new generation, we can only order new transmission." and "Building of new generation keys off market demand." Sounded like crap at the time (walked out of there scraping brown, smelly stuff off the bottom of my shoes) and it's still crap. PJM still "can't order new generation" because, for them, transmission and increasing profits for their most powerful cartel members is what it's all about. Enron. It's the word.
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