Commission Watch

“My goal is to create an incentive for water utilities enabling them to put acoustical testing on hydrants and mains, to be able to find leaks, stop them, and prevent them from becoming main breaks and sinkholes taking out other valuable infrastructure.”

“The big challenge is balancing our desire to address climate change through our clean energy policies and achieving the goals Governor Murphy has set out, against our obligation to protect the ratepayer.”

“We don’t look at utilities as our adversaries. We look at them as partners because we have the physical threats of all the natural disasters, and we also have cyber threats.”

“We’re seeing economic development evolve from the renewable energy field. Over 7,000 people have jobs in the solar industry in New Jersey.”

“Our goal is to get them in compliance. We’re not there to shut down any business.”

“I review applications from such utilities as Hawaiian Electric, reviewing its application for major projects, which includes electric diagrams.”

“If it takes us months to issue them a certificate, they’re unable to legally operate and earn income all that time.”

“We don’t testify, generally. Our Staff is advisory, so we’re an extension of the Commissioners. Our job is to investigate the issues before the Commission and advise them.”

“The state Supreme Court has looked at some novel issues raised by some of the parties related to environmental considerations like greenhouse gases.”

“Our journey of PBR was solidified by legislation that did mandate that we investigate a way to break the link between capital investment and revenue for the utility.”