[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We're now joined by our good friend, Rich Henning who's President and Chief Executive Officer of the New Jersey Utilities Association.

Their website will come up right away.

Rich, good to see ya.

- Good to see you, Steve.

Thanks for having me on.

- You got it.

Tell everyone what the association is, not that energy is a big issue these days.

Go ahead, please.

(laughs) - Energy is the issue.

You know, it is the issue across the country, but certainly here in New Jersey, as we fight to, you know, move clean energy into our portfolio, you know, we've seen so much happening over these last few years.

Actually, if you look at it, there's probably been more investment in energy over the last 20 years, last two decades than there had been a hundred years before that.

It's an amazing- - What's the role of the association?

- The association represents 13 utilities all the way from telecommunications, to water, wastewater, to the gas and the electric utilities.

We're an advocate and we're certainly an education partner in working with the state government, whether it's the BPU, the Board of Public Utilities, whether it's Department of Environmental protection or even sometimes, you know, with the Assembly and the Senate and the Governor's Office and making sure that, you know, the rules are exact and followed and that our utilities have a voice, if you will, in how things work out.

- Rich, elections have consequences, and there's impact.

We're doing this, we're having this conversation with Rich Henning about energy policy after the 2024 election.

President Trump, Republican Congress have talked about dramatically changing energy policy in this nation.

What do you believe the new administration, the new Congress could potentially mean for clean energy in New Jersey, Rich?

- Steve, I don't think we're expecting a whole lot of change in the way that the state has formulated its strategy in moving forward to try to really build a clean energy future for the state.

I think the things that may change, maybe some timeframes.

We certainly know that the new administration will not be as, let's say, as keen, if you will, on offshore wind and some of the other investments that have been made over the past few years.

But that nevertheless does not mean that some of these will not go forward.

I think it means that sometimes, there'll be some government pullback in terms of resources, you know, that have been available during the past four years through the Biden administration.

So I think in that term, that changes, you know, kind of where the government may put its money, but it doesn't necessarily stop innovation dead in its tracks.

You know, some of the things that are being worked on, whether it's carbon capture, whether it is, you know- - Hold on, Rich.

Carbon capture means what?

- Carbon capture is a technology and it's kind of being used a little more concretely in basically capturing the methane out of natural gas.

So, you know, if you're heating your home out of natural gas, you know, you're emitting certainly some carbon into the atmosphere.

And what we're looking at doing and what many of the utilities are doing are testing out carbon capture technologies that may be able to actually reduce that methane that gets into the atmosphere.

- Question.

Energy utility costs are clearly increasing.

How much of it, from your perspective, from the association's perspective, Rich, is a product of drastic changes in our weather?

This summer, we saw record temperatures.

We saw the highest humidity ever recorded in this century of recording humidity.

There is absolutely no doubt that the higher usage we saw this summer was directly due to weather.

- Higher usage of air conditioning utilities.

- Higher usage of electricity.

- Continue, I'm sorry.

- All right?

And most of it, air conditioning, just as you put it there.

I think most people, if you were like me, had their air conditioners on from the beginning of June or the end of May, all the way through the end of August.

And that's not a typical New Jersey summer.

Usually, we get a few, you know, nice 60 degree nights.

We had some cooler nights, but they were so humid that people kept their electricity on and kept their air conditioning running the entire time.

So when they got their bills, you know, during the summertime, they noticed that they were much higher.

But it was like a perfect storm in 2024 because it wasn't just the higher usage, even though all four electric companies in New Jersey reported about 15% increase from 2024 over 2023.

There were other things that contributed to that.

And one was the marketplace to purchase off the grid, electric.

- Explain the grid, Rich.

- I'm gonna explain ta customer's bill.

There are two parts to a customer's bill.

The first part is the supply side.

The utilities do not supply electricity, right?

That comes off of the grid.

They have to buy it off a marketplace.

A marketplace that is for us is run by PGM, which is a, if you will, responsible for 13 states and the grid in those 13 states.

So they actually sell the electricity to the utilities who then have to purchase it under the Board of Public Utilities.

It's a very complicated structure.

But in essence the prices for that supply side rose in the double digits, right?

So you're looking at prices or electricity on the marketplace that have increased dramatically.

- So that then passes down to the consumer?

- It passes down exactly to the consumer because believe it or not, utilities make not one penny out of it.

That is money that is paid to the grid marketplace and that is just passed right on to the consumer.

Where the utilities actually, you know, do their job is in distribution.

So they then take that electricity and they bring that through their network of wires and transformers and that brings it into a customer's home.

And that's what the utilities deliver, and that is what, you know, they're really paid to do.

So over the past few years, they've also been doing quite a bit of work on grid reliability, getting ready for higher electric usage, you know, with EV cars, the electric vehicles, higher usage from AI.

So we're really trying to, if you will, move the ball from, you know, one side to the other where we're gonna be looking at an electric future that's going to increase electric usage dramatically.

- Rich, to say this is complicated is an incredible understatement, but also to say that it's important is an understatement.

So if someone just says, "Climate change isn't real."

"Drill, baby, drill," those are slogans, those are things people say.

That's not real policy and that's why these conversations are so important.

And to Rich Henning and his colleagues at the New Jersey Utilities Association, we thank you.

Again, go on the website.

Let's put it up one more time before we leave this segment.

Put up the website one more time for the New Jersey Utilities Association to feed people to find out more.

Hey, Rich, great having you with us.

We'll continue the conversation trying to create greater public awareness around energy policy, utility costs and issues to consumers and others.

Thank you, Rich.

- Thank you so much, Steve.

All the best.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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