Renewable Energy Will Not Replace Fossil Fueled Power Under The Murphy Energy Master Plan

Here is the egregiously false and misleading headline of NJ Spotlight’s story today on the collapse of the so called “clean energy” bill (emphasis mine):

Clean electricity bill put on hold — at least until next year

TOM JOHNSON, ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT WRITER | DECEMBER 19, 2023 | ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

Legislation that would speed clean energy and shut down fossil fuels pulled from committee by sponsor, ‘not ready for prime time’

At  a time when climate activists are demanding a real “shut down of fossil fuels” and the COP 28 just failed to reach consensus on a “phase out of fossil fuels”, it is simply unforgivable journalistic malpractice for NJ Spotlight to make that false claim in a headline.

There is a huge difference between legislation that would require that retail sales of electricity be from renewable energy versus legislation that would shut down in-state fossil fuel energy production.

I’ve written about that difference several times, because there is a huge misunderstanding and false assumption that the development of renewable energy capacity will displace or replace fossil fuels on a one to one basis. That is just wrong. And climate activists and media are actively promoting this falsehood or allowing this misunderstanding to proliferate uncorrected.

First of all, existing fossil power plants in NJ produce power for the regional PJM electric grid. Nothing in the pending “clean energy” bill would stop them from continuing doing so. Nothing in the bill would stop the existing plants from expanding and nothing would stop even new fossil power plants being build to export power on the regional PJM grid. This goes for power generated by garbage incinerators and so called fossil fueled “co-generation” or multiple forms of fossil energy production that is not converted to electricity that is sold to the grid.

In addition to no legislative or regulatory limits on fossil fueled power plants, market and economic incentives virtually guarantee that those plants will continue to operate and emit greenhouse gases. For example, the NJ BPU’s Energy Master Plan projects a more than doubling of demand for electric power as a result of electrification of transportation and buildings. Regional PJM demands will grow as well, creating huge demand growth and markets for power exports.

The projected expansion of renewable power will serve this growth in demand. It will not displace fossil power.

Further, under the Murphy Energy Master Plan, the engineering design of the renewable energy system (wind production and large scale solar) and electric grid call for continued reliance on fossil fueled gas fired power plants for “reliability” and peak demand.

Here is the Statement from the bill, S2978  – note that the bill itself says nothing about “shutting down fossil fuels”:

The bill would also extend the Class I RPS to require that, beginning in 2045, 100 percent of the energy sold at retail in the State be from Class I renewable energy sources.

So, I fired off this note to NJ Spotlight to demand that they correct their major error.

Dear NJ Spotlight – the headline for today’s Tom Johnson story includes this claim (which is NOT made in the text):

“and shut down fossil fuels”

That claim is factually false. Even the bill’s statement does not make that claim (see:

https://pub.njleg.state.nj.us/Bills/2022/S3000/2978_I1.PDF.

The bill would NOT “shut down fossil fuels”.

Please correct your error immediately – especially as many people only read the headline and will get a completely false understanding.

Bill Wolfe