The 214th Legislative Session of the New Jersey Legislature ended with a rush of legislative activity, which forced Gov. Chris Christie to consider nearly 150 bills over the course of just days. Among those bills were several related to alternative and renewable energy.
Gov. Christie signed the following bills into law this week. The Legislature had approved both last week, incorporating the Governor's recommendations made in conjunction with his conditional vetoes:
A-3991 (Identical Bill S-2978): Directs the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to conduct a review of the safety implications of the installation and maintenance of solar and photovoltaic electric generation equipment by electric public utilities in the "neutral" zone on utility poles, to determine the safety of allowing for more construction and installation of such equipment on poles.
Text of amended bill
Governor's recommendations
S-1406 (Identical Bill A-2502): Establishes the "New Jersey Property Assessment Clean Energy (NJ PACE) Municipal Financing Program" to provide financing for municipalities that wish to facilitate the purchase of renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements by property owners within the municipality.
Text of amended bill
Governor's recommendations
The following bills passed the Legislature last week, but were not signed by the Governor by the deadline this week. This results in "pocket vetoes" that require the legislation to be reintroduced during the current Legislative Session, the 215th. We will keep you apprised:
A-3142 (Identical Bill S-2196): Would have directed the BPU to establish standards concerning local government renewable energy generation demonstration projects utilizing renewable energy technologies.
Text of bill
A-3806 (Identical Bill S-2811): Would have revised the definition of class I renewable energy to include energy produced by certain geothermal heat pumps.
Text of bill
A-3893 (Identical Bill S-2888): Would have established uniform real property taxation for commercial renewable energy systems and limits municipal construction permit fees for non-commercial renewable energy systems
Text of bill
S-463 (Identical Bill A-915): Would haveauthorized creation of local renewable energy collaborative and central renewable energy generation systems, and provides for sale of renewable power generation.
Text of bill
