NJ’s Clean Energy Fund helps keep the lights on. We can't hurt families | Opinion
New Jersey families continue struggling to pay gas, heating, cooling and electric bills. The situation is worsening for low-income households experiencing a high energy burden and yearning for long-term relief. Residents contribute to energy assistance programs, but much of that money never makes it back to support them.
Nine years ago, I was a recipient of the New Jersey Comfort Partners Program, free to income-eligible customers who can reduce their utility bills through measures that conserve energy and save money while enhancing home safety and comfort. The program allowed me to buy a new heater, weatherize my windows and patio door, and make critical repairs to my kitchen and bathroom that I would not have been able to afford as a single mother and homeowner.
Comfort Partners was a true blessing. I was charged nothing for these improvements, but I did help pay for them. Comfort Partners is funded through a program under the state Board of Public Utilities. Along with energy efficiency assistance programs like Comfort Partners, the state’s Clean Energy Program also supports renewable energy development, green job training, and health and financial resilience.
I now head a veterans’ services and advocacy nonprofit organization in Willingboro called Sanctuary Foundation for Veterans, seeing firsthand how programs like Comfort Partners can ease energy cost burdens for many housing-insecure veterans.
New Jersey must deliver on its clean energy priorities and stop raiding the Clean Energy Fund, which is meant to support the thousands of New Jersey households that could use the money to stave off utility shut offs and supplement income so a majority isn’t spent on energy. We deserve and demand certainty that every year, opportunities like the Comfort Partners program and others will be available to stay warm, keep the lights on, and make necessary repairs.
All New Jerseyans pay into the fund — the pool of money intended for the Clean Energy Program — through a portion of our electric bill known as the Societal Benefits Charge. Yet, a large percentage of the money we all pay never makes it to the Clean Energy Program.
Gov. Phil Murphy’s proposed 2024 budget proposes a raid to the Fund of more than $70 million to fill budget holes at another state agency. This annual raiding practice dates to the Corzine administration and continues despite Murphy campaign pledges to stop diverting the money and double down on New Jersey’s clean energy future.
Murphy pledged to end them on the campaign trail, but the raids continue at about the same level each year since he took office, robbing programs like Comfort Partners of a cumulative $2 billion over the last decade. With the latest U.S. Census finding over 10% of New Jersey residents living in poverty, this means that an already underfunded program is getting less, depriving our neighbors of investments in their health and homes that they deserve and need to survive.
Now is the time to stop these raids. With a record $10 billion surplus and millions more coming in from the federal government, there has never been a better moment to put an end to these diversions once and for all. The full $344 million proposed in the fiscal year 2024 budget for the Clean Energy Fund advances action on climate change, supports New Jersey’s clean energy transition, and improves public health, helping families like mine.
Let’s commit not only to keeping our residents’ lights on now and in the future but also return the investment we’ve already made so our communities can survive and thrive for generations.
LaShaunda Carter is the founder and director of Sanctuary Foundation for Veterans in Willingboro.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ Clean Energy Fund cannot be raided. This is why
