For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Jackie Greger, Jackie.Greger@sierraclub.org
NJ Sierra Club Applauds Gov. Sherrill for Signing Energy Affordability Bills, Including Nation-Leading Data Center Tariff Bill
New Jersey - Today on a kitchen table in Salem County, Governor Sherrill signed three energy affordability bills. Among the bills was the nation-leading Data Center Tariff Bill, S731 (Burzichelli)/A796 (Bailey), which is critical to ensuring big tech pays their fair share.
This bill will require electric utilities to develop and apply special tariffs for large-load data centers to protect ratepayers from bearing the cost burden due to their large energy consumption and potential infrastructure upgrades.
Governor Sherrill also signed the RTO Adder Bill, S1673 (Zwicker)/A2757 (Katz), which ends the payment of millions of taxpayer dollars that NJ electric utilities have been receiving for being a part of our Regional Transmission Operator, PJM.
Additionally, the Advanced Grid Technologies Bill, S4411 (Zwicker)/A5188 (Miller), was signed today, which requires State oversight of supplemental projects and establishes expedited review for projects utilizing Advanced Transmission Technologies. These grid enhancing technologies 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.
In response, NJ Sierra Club Director, Anjuli Ramos-Busot, issued the following statement:
“The Sierra Club is extremely pleased to see the Sherrill Administration sign three, essential and game changing pieces of legislation for energy affordability that can bring real relief to New Jersey families.
A new analysis conducted by Synapse Energy Economics Report analyzing these policies estimates that the savings materialized through these bills will save NJ ratepayers more than $1 billion. That is a massive boon to New Jersey’s economy and ratepayers who have been shouldering the costs of big tech’s unchecked energy consumption and unfair utility policies.
The NJ Sierra Club celebrates the data center tariff bill being enacted into law as nation leading. We are excited to see that not only does this new law will set data centers in a new customer ratepayer class separate from us, regular ratepayers, but it also incentivizes them to bring their own clean energy as a way to not strain the grid, our energy capacity, energy affordability, and ultimately, preventing additional air pollution coming to the state in the form of gas engines, turbines and diesel backup generation. Notably, this law will apply to all current data centers with pending proposals in the state on the day of enactment, and not when the utility tariff is developed and approved, a significant step into addressing the impacts of data centers now, and not later.
The Sierra Club is also pleased to see the RTO Adder and Advanced Grid Technologies bills move forward. The money from the RTO bill is free candy the utilities have been raking in from ratepayers for essentially doing nothing, for being a part of our RTO (PJM) that is essential for their operation.
As we have seen over the last week, we need major updates to our electric grid to be able to withstand increasingly intense climate impacts and storms. This legislation will increase our resiliency and improve reliability across the state without increasing costs.
Overall, we thank the Administration for their commitment to energy affordability and for holding big tech accountable to pay their fair share in New Jersey.”
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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