NJ SEED Legislative Update
NJ SEED Legislative Update
February 27, 2012
Senate Environment and Energy Committee
The Senate Environment and Energy Committee, chaired by Senator Bob Smith, met February 27, 2012 to hear testimony on bills regarding the production and conservation of efficient energy systems within the state of New Jersey.
NJ SEED attended to monitor the proceedings as the chairman invited testimony on the following bills:
S1322- which clarifies the intent of P.L.2007, C.340 regarding New Jersey’s required participation in Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. As the majority of the Legislature and the Governor are at odds with this bill, it was evident that various organizations also held such conflicting views. Some representatives stressed that this bill promotes efficient sustainable energy while others described it as an artificial increase in the cost of electricity. Although proponents may argue that some neighboring states have adopted RGGI’s plan, Pennsylvania has yet to be persuaded by the empirical data, and in fact refuses to adopt such a bill.
S1355- Requires plans, specifications, and bid proposal documents for certain local public contracts to address soil contamination. It has been a concern to the public that projects taken on by the construction industry are failing to include the soil content, therefore neglecting the harmful substances in public areas. Chairman Smith questioned what different levels of contamination existed, what kinds of tests used, and how it would determine what was acceptable. A representative from the DEP explained that BP+40 was the test conducted, which holds over 120 different chemicals on their list, other known as “priority pollutants” which are the designated harmful chemicals that need to be eradicated.
S1555- Concerns combined sewer overflows; exempts improvements thereto from 2% property tax cap; requires certain permit holders address such overflows in capital improvement plans; and appropriates $5 million. S-1555 is intended to prevent combined sewage overflows (cso) which have been responsible for the pollution of water systems in the state of New Jersey. One of the issues proposed during testimony suggested that the standards of S-1555 will be set by the DEP, however, none of those standards are specified in the bill.
S1557 – Authorizes creation of stormwater utilities for local government entities. The purpose of the bill is to develop a stormwater management system to manage storm water runoff. S-1557 would authorize the county or municipal authorities to finance the operation and maintenance stormwater utility systems by the imposition of user fees. Some argued that this fee would essentially mean “taxing them twice” since this tax would translate into a new assessment onto a preexisting bill.
S-1557 would also require that 5% of fees collected would be transferred to the DEP to fund program-planning, implementation, and coordination activities related to stormwater utilities and stormwater management systems authorized under the bill. All bills were released from committee.
NJ SEED will continue to monitor these and other important issues in the legislature and report back to our members on their progress.
