- We're now joined by Christine Guhl-Sadovy, who's the president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, otherwise known as the BPU.

Christine, good to see you.

- Good to see you, Steve.

- So let's start with this.

Joe Fiordaliso, the late great president of the BPU, longtime friend of ours, we had him on so many times.

You worked with him, you knew him well.

We saw each other at Joe's wake.

What made Joe Fiordaliso so special and a great public servant?

- Steve, it's hard to put into words, I think what made Joe such a great public servant, a great mentor, and a great friend.

He had a wonderful sense of humor.

He was approachable, he was open-minded.

He was so committed to the goals of the BPU, and Governor Murphy's clean energy policy goals, and he was so incredibly supportive of staff like me, I was his chief of staff, among other things, and all of the staff of the BPU.

And he didn't miss an opportunity to talk about the wonderful staff of this department.

- Check out our Remember Them series in which we honor, recognize Joe Fiordaliso, a great public servant.

Now, let's switch gears.

And also, let me also disclose that the Caucus Educational Corporation, our not-for-profit organization, has received a grant from, not directly from the BPU, but from the advertising agency that does public awareness around clean energy issues.

We have all kinds of folks with different points of view on this.

But in this case, Christine, I want to ask you this.

Orsted leaves on November the 1st, they leave the state, and please check out our interview with Governor Murphy where we talk extensively about that.

They leave the state.

They're the leaders as it relates to wind energy.

What now?

- Well, Steve, that was certainly a setback, and we acknowledge that, but we are more committed than ever to moving forward, not just in offshore wind, but all of Governor Murphy's clean energy goals to get us to a hundred percent clean energy.

Offshore wind is a cornerstone, the cornerstone, of the clean energy goals that we have, and we are committed and we will move forward in spite of that setback.

- So Atlantic Shores, now that is... Did they pick up all of the... Atlantic Shores is another company that does wind energy.

Did they pick up all of that work, Christine?

- So Atlantic Shores is a separate...

They're a separate entity, separate project.

- Separate project.

- Yeah, separate- - So someone else has to pick up the Orsted.

What Orsted left, someone else has to pick up that.

- So we are... As you may know, the governor directed the BPU to advance the fourth solicitation originally scheduled for the end of 2024.

We are now moving it up to... you know, to the early part of 2024.

And I think that that really demonstrates our commitment to, you know, get through this setback and move forward towards our goals around developing offshore wind.

- Christine, let me ask you this.

To those who are critical, and we've had many legislators, particularly Republican legislators, who've come on and said, "You know what?

The economics don't work.

Wind energy's not proven.

Plus, look what's happening to the whales that are washing up on shore.

That's got to have something to do with wind energy."

What do you say to those folks and those who are questioning the power of wind energy?

Please.

- Sure, so wind energy is a proven technology around the world.

It's not a new technology.

Offshore wind is, again, the cornerstone of our clean energy policies in New Jersey and is poised to bring significant economic development in addition to the clean energy generation that it is going to bring to the state of New Jersey and help us to mitigate climate impacts.

There's a lot of misinformation out there about the impacts of offshore wind and, you know, we understand that there is opposition, but we are working based on evidence.

And there's no evidence of any connection between offshore wind and the marine mammal strandings.

So we are moving forward in a responsible way and continue with that commitment to offshore wind.

- Talking to the president of the Board of Public Utilities.

The BPU regulates a whole range of industries.

Tell folks what you regulate, so everyone understands the powerful role of the BPU.

- Sure, we regulate the state's public utilities.

That includes, you know, in addition to electric, gas, water, cable, telephone, and then we are also the Office of Clean Energy, the state's Office of Clean Energy.

- Let's talk about electrifying transportation.

What the heck does electrifying transportation even mean?

- So what it means for, you know, the administration and Governor Murphy's goals is focusing on transportation as a source of emissions, a significant source of emissions in the state of New Jersey, and making sure that we're moving towards electrifying the whole transportation system, including residential vehicles.

The BPU, we just actually closed our incentive program because we expended all the funds for the year.

It will reopen in the next fiscal year.

And it's really about incentivizing people who want to switch to electric, who are ready to drive electric to help support them and make sure that they are able to afford electric vehicles if they wanna make that switch.

- And how confident are you about the charging stations being in place to do that?

- We have...

So much work is being done to expand charging stations.

We understand that, you know, that range anxiety exists at this department, at the BPU, at the DEP, but also really importantly, federal funding coming in from the Biden administration to support the expansion of charging stations throughout the state.

So that in addition to those people who have the ability to have a charger at home, there will also be public charging stations as there already are, and that will continue to grow throughout the state.

- Christine Guhl-Sadovy is the president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, otherwise known as the BPU, and important conversations about climate change, wind energy, electrifying, if you will, cars, and a whole range of other related topics.

We'll continue that conversation in future interviews.

Thank you so much, Madam President.

- Thank you so much, Steve.

- Thank you for watching, folks.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

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- Hello, I’m Donald Payne, Jr.

Congressman for New Jersey’s 10th District.

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