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Legislative Activity to Watch
Category: New Jersey
- On December 9, 2024, Senator Ruiz of New Jersey introduced S3928/2024, which limits the general application of certain consumer contracts. Under the bill, a consumer contract for a service offered by a company must apply solely to the service offered by the company and purchased by the consumer. The consumer contract will be prohibited from containing provisions that allow or require the contract to govern the circumstances under which the consumer purchases other products or services from the contracting company, or an affiliate of the company, which are not offered pursuant to the contract. For this bill, “consumer contract” is broadly defined to mean a written agreement in which an individual contracts for a service and is obtained for personal, family, or household purposes. Therefore, this bill is applicable to residential TPS contracts and residential solar-related contracts. This bill was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee.
- On December 31, 2024, Governor Murphy signed A-5152, which reschedules the June 3, 2025, primary election to take place on June 10, 2025, the following Tuesday, to accommodate a period of religious observance.
- On December 9, 2024, the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee amended A-4817 which requires utilities to establish an “Energy Bill Watch” program and include certain information in bills and notices to customers. The Committee amended the bill to require notifications when usage in a month exceeds usage in the same month in the prior year, instead of only the most recent billing cycle. The Senate passed a similar but not identical bill, S-3620, in October. Because that Senate bill differs from the Assembly version, the Senate must amend and approve S-3620 again before it reaches the Governor’s desk.
- On December 19, 2024, the Senate and Assembly passed S-3308, which requires electric public utilities to implement certain improvements to the interconnection process for certain grid supply solar facilities and energy storage facilities.
- On December 9, 2024, Assemblyman Myhre introduced A-5054, which requires the BPU to review and report on rates and revenues of electric utilities that use smart meters. The BPU’s review is to include a comparison of rates and revenue amounts, for each electric utility, prior to and following the installation of smart meters. The bill was referred to the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee.
- On December 12, 2024, Assemblyman Myhre introduced A-5103, the “Small Modular Nuclear Energy Incentive Act,” which would direct the BPU to establish an incentive program to solicit bids for the construction of new small modular nuclear reactors. The bill would authorize the BPU to issue financial incentives for each megawatt hour of electric energy produced by the reactor. The amount of the incentive would be determined through a competitive solicitation process. An identical bill, S-3964, was introduced by Senator Amato on December 16 and referred to the Senate Environment and Energy Committee.
- On December 12, 2024, the Senate Environment and Energy Committee approved with amendments S-3545, the “Climate Superfund Act”, which imposes liability on fossil fuel companies for certain damages caused by climate change and establishes a program in the DEP to collect and distribute compensatory payments. The bill was referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee. An identical bill, A-4696, has been stalled in the Assembly Environment, Natural Resources, and Solid Waste Committee since last September.
