Are New Jersey Democrats Trying To Hide Another Scandal?

Ah-oh, the headline reads - State agency hid slush fund

According to the Daily Record, Democrats in Trenton are trying to hide another scandal by refusing to release an audit that shows the state's utility regulators use a renewable energy fund financed through customer's electric bills as a slush fund.

"Who are they hiding? Who are they protecting? Money was given to friends and cronies," said Sen. Peter Inverso, R-Mercer, who has been pressing to see the audit of the state Board of Public Utilities' Clean Energy Program.

The Public Utilities Board regulates power companies' rates and its Clean Energy Program is paid for with a $10 to $20 charge to customers' power bills. The money is supposed to be used for "education, information and financial incentives for renewable energy systems and energy efficiency measures."

News reports have said the top people at the BPU opened a private bank account with clean-energy money and that money from the account ended up in projects fostered by friends or relatives of the clique that had access to the account.

State Sen. Thomas Kean Jr., R-Union, pressed Attorney General Zulima Farber on making the audit public. Farber said it was incomplete, a point Republicans argued.

Tomorrow's Daily Record will have more on the story.