Drive down the streets in most neighborhoods and you’ll see utility poles and wires that bring electricity to your home, your child’s school and your local grocery store. But did you ever wonder how the power we depend on every minute of every day gets to your neighborhood in the first place?
PSEG is committed to sustainability.
At the forefront of that commitment are certain ideals: social awareness, care for the environment, and an enthusiastic pledge to support our customers and the communities where we do business.
These values have guided our company for more than a century.
PSEG recently issued its 2017 Sustainability Report– our seventh – which provides an overview of these values, as well as an in-depth look at how the company’s investments in solar energy, energy efficiency and infrastructure projects are improving the reliability and resiliency of our electric and gas systems.
The report also outlines our efforts to reduce environmental impacts and be socially responsible while creating business opportunities and well-paying jobs.
The 2017 report is available at pseg.com/sustainability.
Our experience demonstrates that it is possible to power the economy, provide good jobs for people and protect the environment – all at the same time.
PSEG’s dedication to social progress is evident in initiatives that occur both inside and outside our organization. Diversity and inclusion are essential to fostering an environment that can help us improve by becoming more closely aligned with the changing faces of our workforce, our customers and our communities. We also maintain a vital role in our communities, supporting educational and charitable programs through the contributions of the PSEG Foundation and our employee volunteers.
PSEG’s mission, to deliver safe, reliable and economic energy to our 2.5 million electric and gas customers, provides a foundation for economic growth throughout New Jersey and beyond. In doing so, we provide good jobs and work hard to attract and retain quality employees. Together, these efforts help us to deliver a fair return for our investors and build on one of the longest records of paying annual dividends of any U.S. company.
We believe it is our responsibility to work toward a cleaner energy future. To this end, we have invested more than $1.5 billion in the development of solar energy; we have begun to modernize our underground natural gas system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; we are working to sustain the state’s nuclear fleet, which generates more than 90 percent of New Jersey’s non air-polluting electricity; and we are seeking to expand programs that deliver energy and cost savings to every customer through energy efficiency.
We also have established an ambitious new climate goal: to reduce our carbon footprint by 13 million tons of C02-equivalent emissions by 2030, from 2005 levels. The reduction is the equivalent of taking 2.8 million cars off the road.
Previously, PSEG established a goal of reducing its GHG emissions by 25 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. PSEG met that goal in 2011, 14 years ahead of schedule. The company’s new goal is a continuation of its success to further reduce emissions and provide more low-carbon energy.
For more than a century, Public Service has put sustainability – social awareness, economic growth and environmental protection – at the top of our company’s agenda.
By setting high standards, we have established PSEG as a national model in renewable energy, in reliability and resiliency – leadership that positions us to help our business partners meet their own sustainability goals, as well. We know there is still more to do, in order to assure a sustainable future for our state, our environment and our organization.
Making New Jersey and the surrounding communities we serve better places to work and live is central to our mission. We approach that challenge with the help of a skilled, dedicated workforce, with a proud Public Service tradition and with a vision based on safe, reliable, economic and greener energy. Our commitment to sustainability has guided our past, brought us to where we are today and will lead us to tomorrow.
A 64-year-old, 12-inch, cast iron gas main cracked in Paramus last week. Traffic snarled on Rt. 17 while we made emergency repairs…again. That was the third time in two years we’ve had to patch up this section of pipe. Installation of a replacement gas main is underway. Continue reading
PSE&G President Ralph LaRossa is joined by Governor Chris Christie at a Hackensack substation to highlight the infrastructure investments made since Superstorm Sandy left millions of people without power in the state four years ago
Four years ago this past weekend, Superstorm Sandy barreled into New Jersey, taking an enormous toll on families, homes and businesses. The most devastating impacts of Hurricane Sandy were, as we all saw on television, down the Shore: the surreal pictures of homes under water or tilted off their foundations, the roller coaster in the surf.
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“You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
Iconic singer Joni Mitchell didn’t have electricity in mind when she penned those words in her 1970s hit song “Big Yellow Taxi.” But she could have. Like the air we breathe and the water we drink, electricity is one of life’s essentials that we often take for granted in this country – until it’s gone.
The late Yogi Berra once said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” I agree with Yogi’s wise words. No one knows for certain what the future will bring. But at PSEG we always try to plan for the next generation’s energy needs – with a strong focus on constantly improving how we provide energy solutions for our customers and the larger society around us.
It’s hard to forget where I was or what I was doing on October 29, 2012. I was in PSE&G’s underground emergency response center in Newark, my eyes glued to the television monitors as a storm named Sandy swept up the coast. Along with my colleagues, I remember watching in disbelief the news coverage of the water in New York Harbor and at the Battery rising up and up throughout the day. We knew the storm was going to be bad – really bad. But the level of this wall of water, and the destruction it could cause, was shocking. Continue reading
I remember it like it was yesterday. On July 3, I opened the door to the bathroom/laundry room in my home and was stunned to have a wall of smoke pour out of the small room. Nothing prepares you for that moment when you believe that your house is on fire – not even being a trained firefighter, emergency responder, or a qualified emergency preparedness instructor who has taught a couple hundred classes on how to properly use a fire extinguisher. At that moment, my stomach sank and some panic set in.
On any given day, it’s not unusual to see helicopters hovering overhead in the Hackensack Meadowlands – monitoring traffic conditions or ferrying passengers between New York and New Jersey.
But the helicopter that drivers along the western spur of the New Jersey Turnpike saw early in October was anything but routine. PSE&G used a specialized, heavy-lift helicopter called a Skycrane to deconstruct 13 existing transmission towers and construct 12 new 115-foot towers in the North Arlington meadows as part of the Northeast Grid Reliability Project. Continue reading
Given the current condition of New Jersey’s infrastructure, I am appreciative of plans that seek to upgrade or expand our energy delivery systems. Getting ahead of potential problems is the correct course of action. We can plan for the future or prepare for the bad case scenarios that come with aging gas and electric lines. I don’t know anybody who wants the latter.
PSE&G knows the value of smart investment, so much so that it is willing to put $10 billion of its resources into creating a modern, reliable, and resilient energy system. The public utility understands what those of us in the construction industry already know: that a “patch-and-repair” policy is no way to serve the 2.4 million residents and businesses who rely on them for gas and electric. The fact that PSE&G is willing to upgrade its systems BEFORE problems get worse is the key. It might be easier to garner regulatory support for upgrades after a major power outage, but it is more responsible to do so before the problems get worse.