[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We're joined once again by Michael Renna, president and CEO of South Jersey Industries.

Mike, good to see you again.

- Great to see you, Steve.

Thanks for having me.

- You got it.

We've got the website up of South Jersey Industries.

Tell everyone who you serve and how you serve them.

- Yeah, sure.

So South Jersey Industries is the parent company of two New Jersey utilities, South Jersey Gas Company, Elizabethtown Gas Company.

Serve roughly 750,000 customers, spread out in multiple geographic areas of the state, the western corridor, the suburbs of New York City, and the bottom third of the state.

- Mike, do us a favor, can you make sense of the energy situation in our state and just help us understand A, why are energy, utility prices going up so quickly right now as we speak, and then we'll talk about the future.

- Yeah, so actually, it's really not a utility issue, right?

I mean, we deliver the bills, but the issues that New Jersey are facing right now are on the commodity side, whether that is on the natural gas side or the electric side.

The prices for the commodities themselves are going up, and that is largely because of the fact that our demand in New Jersey and throughout the region and the grid are growing at multiples of what we had previously projected, and our supply is unable to keep up.

So when you have supply and demand in this kind of an imbalance, it drives up pricing, right?

And that pricing is meant to set a signal to the marketplace to spur the development of additional generation.

This is largely right now a problem that is in the electric area of utilities.

And again, I mean, it is purely supply and demand.

We have far more demand and more projected demand coming online, particularly with AI and data centers, than we do supply.

- So along those lines, there'll be a new governor.

We're doing extensive in-depth interviews with Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican candidate for governor, former state legislator, and Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic candidate for governor, policy oriented, in depth.

We're planning for one hour with each one of them, unedited.

It's what it is, and a big part of that conversation will be about energy policy.

Mike, if you were advising the next governor as to what his or her priority should be regarding energy policy, what are the top two items?

What would you tell 'em?

- I think the first is we have to address the supply and demand disconnect right now.

We have got to accelerate the development of generation, and I think that generation, this gets to number two, is that we have to have an all of the above strategy.

You know, there's a role and an important role for renewables.

There is also a role for gas fire generation, right?

There is an element of reliability and grid stability that comes uniquely from gas fire generation.

It's also gonna be one of the quickest to market, even though now.

But one of the other things I would very quickly advise either candidate, and I've met 'em both, and I think they're both, you know, really keen on these issues, is that we've got to fast track this development.

We've got to remove the impediments to development, and we've got to build nuclear, right?

That is the long-term solution.

We've got to create a bridge to nuclear, which is base load generation, and it's zero carbon.

- Along those lines, what is the Linden Renewable Energy Project and how does it relate to what we're talking about right now?

- So Linden Renewable is an RNG project.

So it's a renewable natural gas project, and it's going to take waste, organic food waste from New Jersey, as well as the five boroughs of New York.

And it's gonna convert that organic food waste into energy, in this case, natural gas.

It will be safely blended, shares the same BTU content and quality as-- - Go back again, Mike.

BTU content, help us understand - It is effectively the same as geologic natural gas, and so that it can be blended safely into the distribution system and displace geologic natural gas.

So what's gonna end up happening is Linden will, when it's at full operation, it'll produce the daily equivalent of what a refinery uses.

So a very large quantity of natural gas will be produced daily at Linden, safely injected, and then blended with geologic natural gas and ultimately, you know, heat the homes and heat the businesses of the Elizabethtown customers.

- What's the connection between hydrogen and natural gas?

- So hydrogen, it's another fuel, it's another gas.

Hydrogen can be made using various feed stocks.

What we are doing at South Jersey Industries and what some of our other utility peers are doing is creating green hydrogen.

So what green hydrogen is is we use green renewable power, whether it's from wind or from solar to power an electrolyzer, which then splits the atoms, you know, water, creates hydrogen and oxygen.

That hydrogen is then, similar to RNG, safely blended into the gas stream and delivered to our customers.

So it's another example of a low carbon, in this case, zero carbon fuel displacing geologic natural gas.

- Before I let you go, Mike, you're the CEO, the president at South Jersey Industries, you're a leader.

Do you have a background in science.

How do you know this stuff?

- I've learned it over 28 years of working in this industry.

But no, my background is actually in marketing.

(Steve laughing) - Well, P.S.

that's, marketing education, public awareness is a lot of what this is.

- Absolutely.

- But if the average person, how the heck they gonna understand this?

They know what they see in their bill, but understanding, I'm not saying they're supposed to...

Listen, we're all trying to...

While Mike's explaining this, half the time, I'm like, what's he saying makes sense.

It's a long way of getting to this.

We need to do a better job explaining this stuff.

- We do, we do.

And I think if we can sort of, you know, if we can tamp down some of the rhetoric and really focus on the key issues and educate folks, I think we can solution these issues.

- How dare we attempt to educate people and inform.

- And tamp down the rhetoric?

Go figure.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We need more of that.

We've been listening to and watching Mike Renna, president and chief executive officer of South Jersey Industries.

Mike, as always, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

Thank you, Steve.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Hackensack Meridian Health.

New Brunswick Development Corporation.

New Jersey’s Clean Energy program.

Congress Hall.

A Cape Resorts property.

Kean University.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

And by The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Promotional support provided by Insider NJ.

And by BestofNJ.com.

Here at Kean University, everyone gets their chance to climb higher.

Michael came to Kean and found his passion for health care, and now he's a doctor.

After Tricia graduated, her graphic design work was featured in The New York Times.

Samantha is studying athletic training and finding her path to an internship with the New York Giants.

Real Students.

Real Stories.

Real Success.

Cougars Climb Higher.

Kean University.