TOM JOHNSON / NJ SPOTLIGHT – Higher energy bills to consumers. Increased use of more-polluting fossil-fuel plants. A shift away from cleaner ways of producing power, like solar and offshore wind.
According to critics, those are the consequences of a month-old decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require PJM, operator of the nation’s largest power grid, to revamp how state-subsidized generation is treated in competitive energy markets.
As a result, a request has been made that the agency reconsider and clarify its December decision requiring the grid operator to include electricity from sources in its capacity market, a step aimed at bringing the price of clean power in line with that produced by fossil fuels …