"Universal Health Care"

Why is that the only type of universal health care the media will talk about is the multi-payer corporate kind that asks consumers to "be responsible" and gives a whole lot of tax dollars to insurance companies?

Yesterday's New York Times has an article on the in-the-works proposal for an individually-mandated "universal health care" program for New Jersey. There aren't too many details but keep this on your radar. Massachusetts-style reforms like this aren't going to do us much good. And at a cost of $1.7 billion for the first year, it makes little sense when you consider that a single-payer system would SAVE money.

On the national front, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) today announced his Healthy Americans Act, which appears to be another attempt at corporate universal health care. He says that the program will save money because, when people have to pay more out of pocket expenses, they will be more conscious about what services they use. Err... Sounds like he's reading from the Heritage Foundation playbook.

Wake me up when its over.

Exelon Not Meeting with PSEG to Re-Structure Deal

Take a look at this interesting article from Reuters.

Although many have speculated that Exelon might try to restructure the terms of their merger agreement with PSEG, this article says otherwise. If this is true, then it is a great sign for ratepayers in New Jersey! The Companies and the Board of Public Utililties Staff are apparently far apart on the terms of the settlement agreement, so this could mean that Exelon might be ready to walk!

BPU Rejects Exelon's Offer

All of our work is paying off so far! The NJ Board of Public Utilities rejected Exelon and PSEG's latest settlement offer in a response to the companies ulitmatum to the BPU to make a decision by Friday. The Board Staff said that market power issues are still their biggest concern at the moment . NJCA was very pleased to see that the BPU seemed dedicated to sticking to the "positive benefits" standard that they set for this case. Exelon said they would back out of the deal if the BPU rejected the deal on Friday, but later that evening, their Board said they would give it until August 21st before the back out. The BPU also called on all the parties in the case to come to the table and work quickly to reach a settlement. Here are some of the articles:

NJ won't sign off on $17.8B utility sale (Bergen Record)
It's overtime merger mode for Exelon (Chicago Tribune)
BPU calls deadline bluff on energy firms' merger (Star Ledger)

Christian Science Monitor Article Has a Great Article on Paid Family Leave

Check out this informative in today's Christian Science Monitor on Paid Family Leave and other maternity issues:

"The problem of a pregnant pause."

Two NJ Coal Generation Plants that PSEG Must Divest Are Top Among Nation's Polluters

Executives at PSEG must be so upset that the Department of Justice's Consent Decree is making them divest 6 generating plants in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Then again, maybe not!

The Sewaren plants were already scheduled to be retired in the near future, but this article from the Camden Courier Post cites a newly released study that claims two of the other NJ plants that PSEG needs to divest are two of top polluting coal generation plants in the nation. PSEG's Hudson plant is ranked 12 out of 400, and PSEG's Mercer plant is ranked 36 out of 400.

This means that the DoJ Consent Decree is pretty much sweet-heart deal that allows PSEG to dump its most most troublesome and costly plants in order to meet its divestiture requirements.

Cable Franchise Bill Still Needs Some Work in Order to Ensure Competition

According to this Star Ledger Editorial, Gov. Corzine has until Thursday, August 4 to make some necessary changes to the Cable State-Franchise bill that has recently passed through both houses of the State Legilslature.

Citizen Action raised the same concerns as the Star Ledger Editorial and this other Opinion piece from the Courier Post Online when we tesitified in front of the Assembly Telecommunications and Utility Committee that the bill needs to be changed in order to prevent companies like Verizon from redlining communitites that the feels are undesirable. We argued that if a town has to give a Statewide Cable Franchise the ability to use it's "rights of way" to install their system infrastructure, then the cable company should be required to provide their services (Cable and broadband internet) to this town as well.

It is great that the legislature and the Governor want to create more competition in the cable industry! Citizen Action totally agrees, but the Governor should make sure that the whole state is able to enjoy the benefits of increased competition, not only the most affluent and densely populated areas of the state. The legislature failed to account for the NJ residents who need cable competition and access to broadband the most, but the Governor could correct this mistake!

He has until Thursday to either sign the bill, veto it outright, or demand changes through a conditional veto. If he does nothing then the bill will automatically become a law. If you would like to contact the Governor about this, Citizen Action has a Web-Action on our website that sends a letter to the Governor and urges him to send the bill back to the legislature in order to make the necessary changes. To learn more or send a letter to the Governor, Click Here!

Exelon/PSEG Merger Must Be Done Right

The Star Ledger ran a great editorial which calls on the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to reject the PSEG/EXELON merger until the companies show NJ ratepayers the money.

The Editorial says that the companies are holding secret settlement meetings with the BPU, which is a huge concern for us. Otherwise, the editorial goes over why $400 t $500 million in rate credits (which is what the companies claim is the amount) still is not sufficient for this giant merger. It explains that when Jersey Central Power & Light was bought by an Ohio company, a $4.5 billion deal, the companies offered over $300 million rate credit. The Exelon/PSEG merger is now pushing $17 billion, so the Editorial says that the companies need increase the credit substantially before the BPU even thinks of approving the merger.

We feel the same way, but remember, Exelon will be inheriting all of PSEG Power's generation plants, which NJ ratepayers have helped paid for since 1999. During deregulation, the BPU ordered PSE&G to sell of its generation capabilites. The company claimed that this was unfair since the book value of the plants was over $5 billion, while the market value was only $1.9 billion at the time. The BPU agreed with the company and ordered that ratepayers pay off the difference (close to $3 billion plus interest) throught securitization bonds. We will be paying off these bonds through our rates until 2014. PSE&G sold the plants to the newly created PSEG subsidiary PSEG Power. If the Exelon/PSEG merger goes through, Exelon will become the new owner of these plants, which coincidentally are now worth over $5 billion on the market. For the merger goes through, Exelon should be required to pay back ratepayers for the plants that they paid for instead of letting their stockholders take the money! When you consider that with interest, consumers will pay close to $5 billion for these plants, $500 million in rate credits is a joke!

FERC Needs More Time For Merger

Here is an article from the Washington Post which says the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has asked for more time to consider the proposed merger between FPL and Constellation electric. The agency has added a few more Commissioners since they approved the Exelon/PSEG merger without a day of evidentiary hearings. FERC said that Exelon would have to divest only 4,000 MW of generation capacity (2,600 additional MW in "virtual divestiture, an untested concept invented by Exelon) to get their approval.

A new report released by the PJM (regional grid) Market Monitoring Unit which says that even if the merger was to follow the Dept. of Justice Decree (5,6oo MW divested) the new company would still be able to exert market power to increase electricity prices. Hopefully after seeing this report, FERC will realize that they might want to take additional time and really figure out how a merger can effect the unregulated energy markets and consumers, as well. Hopefully this will lead to a more appropriate ruling in the $11 billion FPL-Constellation merger, but it is a little too late for the $16.7 billion PSEG-Exelon case.

PECO Customers Still Without Power

PECO is having a tough time restoring energy to its customers

CBS has an article online that says that Pennsylvania's Emegency Management Agency wants PECO to review it procedures so that a travesty like this doesn't happen again. The problem might not be so much in their response (although PECO acknowldges that they needed more workers to deal with the emergency) but rather in their ongoing maintenance of their power lines.

Ever since deregulation, PECO has been drastically reducing their amount of investment in transmission maintenance. They have been even further compromising their reliability since being taken over by Exelon in the fall of 2000, by reducing its investment in transmission maintenance by another 33%. They decrease spending on maintenace in order to increase the payout to their shareholders, and if they take over PSEG, would most likely do the same here in NJ. Exelon has pledged to maintain PSEG's $500 million/year investments in maintenance of its power network, but knowing the companies history makes me wonder how long this would last.

Right now, PSEG ranks highest in service reliability among the 4 Electric Distribution Companies, while PECO and Exelon subsidiary ComEd rank among the lowest in PA and Illinois. Although there were some power outages in PSE&G territory due to last weeks storm, in most cases the electricty was restored within a day. It has been almost a week and PECO has yet to restore electricity to all of its customers. This type of disaster might be coming to NJ very soon.

Governor Corzine to Sign Rx Pricing Registry Bill August 14

The word is that the bill signing will be at the East Brunswick Senior Center at 10:30 am on Monday August 14th!

If you would like to join us for the bill signing, please contact Mike Olender at 732-246-4772 or mike@njcitizenaction.org. RSVP beforehand because the location/time could change!

Directions can be found here.

- Mike

Paid Family Leave in California - 2 Years Later

It has been over two years since California implemented the nation's first Paid Family Leave Laws in the nation. NJCA has been trying to bring about similar legislation here in NJ by expanding our current TDI system, so it is helpful to look at Cali's system and see where it has been successfull and where it needs some fine tuning. Here are some recent articles from California reviewing their first two years of Paid Family Leave.

Paid leave for men a relative success

Participation in State's Paid Family Leave Program Falls Short

New Issue Brief: California's Paid Family Leave Law - Landmark Legislation Benefits Working Families; Other States Consider Similar Statutes