TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey regulators voted Thursday to approve $300 million in customer-funded subsidies for the state’s nuclear industry despite finding the plants are financially viable. In return for the bailout, the state’s biggest utility, Public Service Enterprise Group, is expected to keep the three southern New Jersey nuclear plants that supply an estimated two-fifths of the state’s electricity supply in operation. Public Service Enterprise Group plant workers wearing orange T-shirts watched the proceedings in the crowded hearing room. “The BPU sold out the ratepayers and renewable energy today by going along with this unnecessary nuclear subsidy. Public Service Enterprise Group lobbied heavily on the subsidies and went to lawmakers about two years ago saying that a glut of cheaper natural gas made the nuclear plants less viable and that they’d shutter them without financial help.

Source: National Post April 18, 2019 19:07 UTC