The New Jersey Senate has passed a bill that will require
utility companies operating in the state to source at least 80% of their
electricity from renewable energy sources by the year 2050, according to recent
reports.
The new bill (Bill
S1707) would require utility companies to source at least 11% of their
electricity from renewable energy sources starting in 2017 — with this
requirement growing roughly 10% every 5 years until the 80% target is achieved.
The bill is now headed to the New Jersey General Assembly
for approval. It should be noted that a similar bill was passed by the state’s
Senate last December, but didn’t make it to a vote in the General Assembly
before the legislative session ended.
If the bill makes it into law, then New Jersey will end up
possessing the fifth most stringent renewable energy portfolio standard in the
US — behind only the states of New York, California, Vermont, and Hawaii. But
still slightly ahead of the recently signed into law Oregon state renewable
portfolio standard that will see utility companies there required to source 50%
of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2040.
While it probably isn’t likely, there’s the possibility that
Governor Chris Christie will veto the bill if the General Assembly approves it.
If that were to happen the a two-thirds majority would be needed in both the
Senate and the General Assembly in order to overturn the Governor’s veto.
As it stands, New Jersey possesses a renewable energy
portfolio standard of 20% by 2020-2021 — with a provision included requiring
utility companies to source at least 4.1% of their electricity from solar
photovoltaic (PV) installations by 2027-2028.
No comments:
Post a Comment