Murphy Postpones Public Hearings on State’s New Energy Master Plan

January 23, 2023 | njspotlightnews.org

File photo: On July 8, 2021 in Seaside Heights, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a package of bills related to clean energy.

Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday unexpectedly shelved public hearings slated to begin this week on the state’s Energy Master Plan, adding to the uncertainty about his ambitious clean-energy agenda as it moves forward.

In a press release issued by his office, the governor announced stakeholder meetings that were to begin Thursday would be put off until later this year. The aim was to update the plan, which lays out a detailed blueprint for reaching Murphy’s target of a 100% clean energy economy by 2050.

NJ SEED: Postponing the start of stakeholder hearings about a revised Energy Master Plan is a wise decision. Notwithstanding the rhetoric in announcing the delay in getting consideration underway, experience so far demonstrates there are many bumps in the road to a “fossil fuel free NJ”. It is encouraging to note the governor’s intention that the New EMP will “seek to better capture economic costs and ….. ratepayer impacts.” Projected costs of the current EMP remain a closely guarded secret. Perhaps the 2024 EMP will include information about the costs and mechanisms required to provide storage of backup capacity necessary to deliver essential energy when wind & solar fail to produce adequate supply.