UPDATED: Riche Has Tough Talk for PSE&G Solar Project on National TV, PSE&G Responds

He's made it no secret that he to place hundreds of thousands of solar panels on utility poles throughout its service area in New Jersey, and now Deputy Mayor Tom Riche is taking his talk to national television. But PSE&G said some of the deputy mayor's statements were erroneous.

Riche spent Thursday morning with Wyckoff resident and co-host of Fox & Friends, Steve Doocey, where he again panned the project the village has objected to on many grounds.

Village officials have expressed concern that there could be damage incurred to the Gamewell fire and emergency line (which includes Valley) stemming from the panels, as well as snowfall accumulation presenting a liability to passersby. Other common complaints include possible loss of property value, the "hideous" appearance of the panels and perhaps most importantly, some said, that PSE&G gave no notice and its communication has been stealthy.

The energy company, in a recent Record article, defended its position saying it owns the poles, the energy generated melts snow, it doesn't have to notify towns, it deals with liabilities and not the municipality, the Gamewell system would not be interfered with, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," and exploring renewable energy solutions is a must in today's world, in addition to being a job creator. Some proponents of the project have said opponents are NIMBYs and PSE&G maintains that the vast majority of customers support the project.

Nevertheless, it has ceased placing the panels in the village after seven were built in various sections of town. PSE&G began the state-wide project in 2009 and is projected to install at least 180,000 panels by 2012. When all is said and done, it should power 6,600 homes, PSE&G says.

On Fox & Friends, Riche said, "What I think people don't realize is that that $515 million is going to be placed right back on the ratepayers. So you're going to see an electric bill increase every month to pay for this project. And the utility earns solar energy credits [Solar Renewable Energy Certificates–"SRACs"] that it can re-sell to other utilities so it can burn more fossil fuels."

Francis Sullivan, a spokesperson for PSE&G said in an interview with Patch on Friday that those statements are not correct.

"Ratepayers are not going to pay for the full $515 million. The power that the panels produce, the SRACs that we sell, the federal credits go back into the program to offset that amount."

Sullivan also said while ratepayer bills will be going up, it's not going up 10 to 20 cents each month. "That you're going to see an electric bill increase every month is not true," he said.

"The impact to ratepayers right now is between 10 and 20 cents a month. It does go up over time but not every month. It stays in that range." The utility spokesman said it had been at ten cents last year and will be within the range of 10-20 this year.

Sullivan also took objection to Riche's claim that the purpose of the panels was to "burn more" fossil fuels.

"PSE&G sells the solar credits that the units generate in an auction to receive the highest value for customers. However, generating companies–not utilities–typically purchase them. All of the revenue generated from the sale of these SRECs is returned to ratepayers by offsetting Solar 4 All’s overall cost to our customers."

"The purchase of these SRECs does not allow the generating companies that bought them to 'burn more fossil fuel.' It instead allows them to meet their mandated renewable energy generation requirements," Sullivan said.

Riche said on Fox that Ridgewood "is not against solar power" and also remarked that PSE&G did not show up to a scheduled meeting to address village concerns.

Sullivan said that there were a series of meetings with Bergen County municipalities that day and the meeting was cancelled with notice. "It's not like we didn't just not show up," he said.

Sullivan added that a new meeting will be scheduled soon and the energy company is "hopeful" for an amicable resolution once it meets with village officials.

See the whole clip at Fox News' website here.