Trenton's Energy Wizard

by: deciminyan

Thu Mar 31, 2011 at 08:35:31 PM EDT

For me, as an engineer and a political junkie, listening to Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula give a speech is a treat. The legislator from Somerset county is a walking encyclopedia on energy, both from the policy and technology standpoints. Before he went to Trenton, the engineer-politician designed power plant simulators and worked at one of the premier research institutions on Earth, AT&T Bell Labs.

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Chivukula gave the keynote address at the NJ/PA Sustainability Forum on the Rutgers - Camden campus today. He provided a concise summary of the state of energy production and distribution as well as his view of the energy-political landscape.

With all the attention on other issues, Chivukula said that it’s difficult to get the general public interested in energy policy. Media coverage is sparse, and with our cheap and (usually) reliable electricity supply, he said, most people take energy for granted.

Chivukula pointed out that New Jersey gets over half its energy from the four nuclear plants in the state - three in Salem County and one (Oyster Creek) in Ocean County. But Oyster Creek’s operating license will expire in 2019. (The plant’s owners, Excelon, refused to build cooling towers to protect Barnegat Bay, hence the plant will be decommissioned at the end of the current license.) The closing of the plant will leave a 640 megawatt hole in New Jersey’s electricity production.

While he pointed out that energy is a non-partisan issue, Chivukula lamented the politicization leading to delays in the release of Governor Christie’s Energy Master Plan. He said that all the governor’s people are doing is tweaking the 2008 plan, but no one in the legislature has had any input to it. Offshore wind is part of this plan, but there’s a seven-year permitting process and the deep water sites are conducive to construction only two months of the year.

He spent a lot of time discussing Governor Christie’s conditional veto of A2529, a bill to promote renewable energy, and felt that the veto was based on a fit of pique by one of the governor’s aides and not on the merits of the bill. Chivukula also pointed out that sixty percent of our greenhouse gases come from transportation, so it is critical that the Energy Master Plan address that also.

I wish I were wonky enough to understand everything in his remarks, but alas, I am not. We elect our legislators to do the hard work of understanding the issues and promoting legislation that meets our needs. While I’m leery of most politicians (in both parties), Assemblyman Chivukula is one who my gut tells me is doing the right things, and deserves our support.

deciminyan :: Trenton's Energy Wizard

Tags: Upendra Chivukula, energy, Chris Christie, Energy Master Plan, (All Tags)

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Trenton's Energy Wizard | 3 comments

He's a mensch (4.00 / 3)

and a good guy! Your gut is telling you the right thing.

We sat together for the bulk of a train trip from Washington DC and what I particularly recall is his passion in talking about crafting and passing environmentally responsible energy related legislation that would help the public now and in the future

"Discrimination caused by ignorance and fear is a tax on human progress" - Barbra Casbar Siperstein

by: Babs NJSD @ Fri Apr 01, 2011 at 05:27:20 AM UTC

Assemblyman DEREGULATION (0.00 / 0)

Hmmm - I actually have a disagreement with deciminyan.

Except that he has a HORRIBLE corporate record when it comes to deregulation and putting up legislation that benefits Verizon, the Cable Industry and screws consumers.

Chivakula is not a progressive.

A2529 was opposed by progressive environmentalists and it is incredible that Christie had to veto it - the democrats and particularly the most corporate democrats like Chivakula were promoting it.

by: Hetty Rosenstein @ Fri Apr 01, 2011 at 10:51:24 AM UTC

Wizard? I think not. (0.00 / 0)

Chivukula is more of a corporate sell-out than a wizard. When he first heard there was a bill in January that would totally deregulate the telecommunications industry in the state, he knew it was a terrible idea - so much so, that the leadership decided not to give it to the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee that he heads. Why? Because he would not have ever let it come out of his Committee...he knew it went way too far and never deserved to get to the floor for a vote.

But once the leadership decided to pass him by and give it to the Assembly Regulatory Oversight and Gaming Committee (which is really all about casinos), he fell into line real quick. He voted for it, along with 65 other uninformed assemblypersons.

Then, in a further act to show just how influenced he can be by a call from Dennis Bone of Verizon and his other good buddies in the cable industry, he went so far as to write an editorial about how great the bill would be for jobs and investment in telecommunications in the state. What he (and no one else in support of the bill) ever tells you, is what jobs? What investment? What new competition?

The answer to all three is: NONE. Chivukula hasn't got a clue - but he is for sale.

by: MasterBlaster @ Mon Apr 04, 2011 at 03:47:03 AM UTC