For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Jackie Greger, Jackie.Greger@sierraclub.org
NJ Legislature Passes Good Environment and Energy Bills with FY27 Budget but Falls Short on Making Polluters Pay
Trenton, NJ - Yesterday evening, a suite of critical energy and environmental bills passed the NJ Legislature with New Jersey’s Fiscal Year 27 (FY27) Budget session.
Listed below is a summary of key bills that have moved or been held:
- Data Center Tariff Bill: S731 (Burzichelli)/A796 (Bailey) - This bill is critical to ensuring big tech companies pay their fair share, as it requires electric public utilities to develop and apply special tariffs for large-load data centers to protect ratepayers from increased costs from their massive energy consumption and their possible infrastructure upgrades.
- Plug-in Solar Bill: S2368 (Mckeon)/A4836 (Calabrese) - Plug-in solar or balcony solar has the potential to give every household – regardless of whether they own or rent their home or have a suitable rooftop – a simple, affordable way to lower their energy bills through plug-in solar and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, while helping to address data center-driven strain on our energy grid. This bill makes solar more accessible and affordable for more New Jerseyans.
- Dual Use Solar: S3939 (Zwicker)/A2524 (Spearman) - This bill permits dual-use solar energy projects to participate in community solar programs.
- RTO Adder Bill: S1673 (Zwicker)/A2757 (Katz) - This bill takes away the payment of millions of taxpayer dollars that NJ electric utilities receive simply because they are part of a Regional Transmission Operator, in our case PJM. This money was free candy the utilities have been getting from ratepayers for doing nothing.
- Water and Energy Reporting for Data Centers: S3379 (Ruiz)/A4096 (Venezia) - This bill is a crucial first step to provide transparency to the state about the accurate strain on our energy supply, the grid, and impacts to our water availability, inflicted by data centers and other large-load customers. This bill ensures both energy and water reporting is transparent to the public.
- End Data Tax Credits Act: S4390 (Cryan)/A5165(Macurdy) - This bill essentially eliminates all remaining tax credits for data centers available under the “Next New Jersey Program,” a program created under the Murphy Administration aimed to position NJ as a hub for data center development.
- Advanced Grid Technologies Bill: S4411 (Zwicker)/A5188 (Miller) - This bill requires State oversight of supplemental projects and establishes expedited review for projects utilizing advanced transmission technologies. Advanced transmission technologies, including grid enhancing technologies and high-performance conductors can provide significant consumer savings, reliability improvements, and capacity gains in deployments, often with benefit-to-cost ratios substantially exceeding those of traditional transmission alternatives.
- Scrap Metal Safety Bill: S312 (Cruz-Perez)/A2401 (Moen) - This bill establishes measures to improve safety of scrap metal businesses by requiring mandatory quarterly audits, on site fire suppression systems that allow for immediate containment of a fire, and requiring facilities to employ individuals specifically trained in fire suppression. This law is vital for public health and environmental safety.
- Green Acres Funding for Non-Profits, Saving NJ School of Conservation: S4495 (McKeon)/A5321 (Collazos-Gill) - The New Jersey School of Conservation (NJSOC) has provided critical environmental education and access to the outdoors for the public, students, and environmental professionals for more than 75 years. This bill will allow the use of Green Acres funding for certain projects on State-owned land by certain nonprofit organizations like NJSOC. The bill only passed the Senate floor, and felt short in the Assembly process.
- Make Polluters Pay for an Affordable NJ Act (“Climate Superfund”), A3735 (Collazos-Gill /S2338 (McKeon): The Polluters Pay Act is a critical means to ensuring affordability in NJ and combating the damages brought by climate change, this bill will bring in $50 billion in new revenue over the next 20 years. Despite having a long list of sponsors, this bill was held up at the last moment and was not posted on the Assembly floor due to misinformation from fossil fuel and business interests.
In response, NJ Sierra Club Director, Anjuli Ramos-Busot, issued the following statement:
“The Sierra Club is pleased to see the legislature move forward with several critical bills for energy affordability, conservation, and accountability measures for utilities, big tech companies and scrap metal facilities.
The legislature has taken action to increase transparency and better protect ratepayers from the impacts of data centers by passing three data center bills, including a water and energy-usage reporting bill, the Data Center Tariff Bill, ensuring big tech pays their fair share, and the “End Data Center Tax Credits Act.” The energy and water reporting bill is a crucial step to provide transparency to the state about the accurate strain on our energy supply, the grid, and impacts to our water availability, inflicted by data centers and other large-load customers. This bill ensures both energy and water reporting is transparent to the public. These bills will also ensure that New Jersey families are not footing the bill for large-load users and that the state is not incentivizing them with sweet tax breaks.
It is time that our electric utilities are pushed into the direction of legitimate ratepayer cost savings. By incentivizing advanced transmission technologies and eliminating the free money that utilities have received for many long years by simply participating in our Regional Transmission Operator, PJM, we are steps closer to moving them to a modernized grid and the prioritization of ratepayer benefits and not their profit margins.
We are pleased to see that changes are being made to ensure scrap metal facilities are operating safely. These changes will better safeguard the wellness of neighboring communities, and prevent avoidable disasters. The recent EMR fires in Camden are a stark reminder of the dangers that these facilities can pose without adequate safety measures.
When it comes to conservation, we are glad to see S4495 move forward to allow the use of Green Acres Funds for certain non-profits and extend a lifeline for the NJ School of Conservation. We thank the Senate for their support but unfortunately, the bill fell short in the Assembly process. We urge the Assembly and Speaker Coughlin to ensure its passage as soon as the Legislature resumes in the Fall to guarantee the School’s survival.
Despite the progress we saw yesterday for clean energy, we are very disappointed with the Assembly’s capitulation to misinformation from the fossil fuel industry and business interests as the Make Polluters Pay for an Affordable NJ Act was not posted in the Assembly, and consequently then taken down from the Senate floor board list. This bill is critical for ensuring affordability in NJ, combatting the damages brought by climate change, and making those responsible for the damages accountable for them.
The Make Polluters Pay for an Affordable NJ Act was delayed as New Jersey heads into yet another days-long dangerous heatwave while still in a drought period, with a projected record-breaking Super El Niño storm season on the horizon. We must hold polluting fossil fuel companies liable for NJ’s rising climate costs, which they are responsible for.”
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About the Sierra Club: The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information about our work in New Jersey, visit www.sierraclub.org/new-jersey