Bill Text: NJ S875 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Establishes "Energy Infrastructure Study Commission."
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-01-12 - Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Economic Growth Committee [S875 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2016-S875-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
217th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2016 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Senator LINDA R. GREENSTEIN
District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)
Co-Sponsored by:
Senator Cruz-Perez
SYNOPSIS
Establishes "Energy Infrastructure Study Commission."
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act establishing the "Energy Infrastructure Study Commission."
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. There is established a commission to be known as the "Energy Infrastructure Study Commission," hereinafter referred to as the commission. The commission shall consist of 15 members as follows: the President of the Board of Public Utilities, ex officio, or the president's designee, who shall serve as Chair of the commission, the Commissioner of Community Affairs, ex officio, or the commissioner's designee, the Director of the Division of Rate Counsel, ex officio, or the director's designee, two members of the Senate to be appointed by the President of the Senate, which members shall not be of the same political party; two members of the General Assembly to be appointed by the Speaker of the General Assembly, which members shall not be of the same political party; two public members to be appointed by the Senate President, who shall include an individual with expertise in electric distribution infrastructure or a representative of employees in the energy industry, or both, two public members to be appointed by the Speaker of the General Assembly, who shall include an individual with expertise in electric distribution infrastructure or a representative of employees in the energy industry, or both, four public members to be appointed by the Governor, who shall include at least one individual with expertise in electric distribution infrastructure, or at least one individual with expertise in municipal governance, or at least one an individual with expertise in emergency management, or any combination thereof.
For the purposes of this section, "energy industry" means any person, company, corporation, business, institution, establishment, or other organization of any nature engaged in the exploration, extraction, transportation, transmission, refining, processing, generation, distribution, sale, or storage of energy.
2. All appointments to the
commission shall be made within 30 days of the effective date of P.L. ,
c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill). Vacancies in
the membership of the commission shall be filled in the same manner as the
original appointments were made. Members of the commission shall serve without
compensation but shall be entitled to their actual and necessary expenses
incurred in the performance of their duties pursuant to P.L. , c.
(C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) within the limits of
funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the commission for its
purposes.
3. a. The commission shall organize within 30 days after the appointment of its members and shall select a secretary who need not be a member of the commission.
b. Staff and related support services shall be provided to the commission by the Board of Public Utilities. The commission shall also be entitled to call to its assistance and avail itself of the services of the employees of any State department, board, bureau, commission, or agency as it may require and as may be available to it for its purposes.
4. a. It shall be the duty of the commission to study and make findings and recommendations to the Governor and to the Legislature with regard to the following:
(1) recommendations for improving the State's electric utility infrastructure;
(2) a comparative analysis of reinforcing or improving existing power lines and utility poles versus the installation of underground electric distribution lines;
(3) the feasibility of installing all, or the majority of, electric distribution lines in the State underground;
(4) the costs to ratepayers, taxpayers, and municipalities associated with moving above-ground electric distribution lines underground;
(5) methods for prevention of electric transmission and distribution line damage caused by fallen trees and excessive winds;
(6) the effect of municipal tree maintenance plans and electric public utility vegetation management programs upon electric public utility infrastructure reliability and recommendations for improving such plans and programs to improve reliability;
(7) problems, including the location of substations in flood plains or low lying areas, associated with vulnerabilities to electric public utility infrastructure;
(8) recommendations for the utilization of technology to better communicate electric service outages from customers experiencing an outage to the appropriate electric utility;
(9) feasibility concerning the implementation of new technologies to improve electric public utility service reliability and alternative methods for the transmission and distribution of electricity;
(10) recommendations for legislation to facilitate improvements to electric public utility transmission and distribution reliability, including recommendations for legislation concerning the installation of underground electric distribution lines and the utilization of new technologies and distributed generation to improve reliability; and
(11) the costs to ratepayers if the commission's recommendations are implemented.
b. The commission shall meet monthly and shall hold at least three public hearings for the purpose of taking testimony regarding matters before the commission. The public hearings shall be held in three separate locations throughout the State, one within the northern part of the State, one within the central part of the State, and one within the southern part of the State. For the purposes of this paragraph: "northern" means the counties of Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, Passaic, Sussex, or Union; "central" means the counties of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Somerset, or Warren; and "southern" means the counties of Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean, or Salem.
5. The commission shall issue a final report and its findings and recommendations to the Governor, and to the Legislature pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1), no later than one year following its organizational meeting. The commission shall expire upon submission of the final report.
6. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
The bill establishes the "Energy Infrastructure Study Commission." The commission is to consist of 20 members selected as follows: the President of the Board of Public Utilities, ex officio, or designee, who would serve as Chair; the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs, ex officio, or designee; the Director of the Division of Rate Counsel, ex officio, or designee; two members of the Senate to be appointed by the President of the Senate, which members shall not be of the same political party; two members of the General Assembly to be appointed by the Speaker of the General Assembly, which members shall not be of the same political party; four public members to be appointed by the Senate President; four public members to be appointed by the Speaker of the General Assembly; and five members appointed by the Governor. Of the members appointed by the Governor: three are to be public members to be selected from a list submitted by the New Jersey Utilities Association; and two are to be mayors; one selected from a list submitted by the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, and one selected from a list submitted by the New Jersey State League of Municipalities.
Under the bill, the commission is to study and make findings and recommendations to the Governor and to the Legislature, within one year after its organizational meeting, with regard to the following: (1) recommendations for improving the State's electric utility infrastructure; (2) a comparative analysis of reinforcing or improving existing power lines and utility poles versus the installation of underground electric distribution lines; (3) the feasibility of installing all or majority of electric distribution lines in the State underground; (4) the costs to ratepayers, taxpayers, and municipalities associated with moving above-ground electric distribution lines underground; (5) methods for prevention of electric transmission and distribution line damage caused by fallen trees and excessive winds; (6) the effect of municipal tree maintenance plans and electric public utility vegetation management programs upon electric public utility infrastructure reliability and recommendations for improving such plans and programs to improve reliability; (7) problems, including the location of substations in flood plains or low lying areas, associated with vulnerabilities to electric public utility infrastructure; (8) recommendations for the utilization of technology to better communicate electric service outages from customers experiencing an outage to the appropriate electric public utility; (9) feasibility concerning the implementation of new technologies to improve electric public utility service reliability and alternative methods for the transmission and distribution of electricity; and (10) recommendations for legislation to facilitate improvements to electric public utility transmission and distribution reliability, including recommendations for legislation concerning the installation of underground electric distribution lines and the utilization of new technologies to improve reliability.
The commission is to meet monthly and shall hold at least three public hearings, one in the northern, central, and southern parts of the State, for the purpose of taking testimony regarding matters before the commission.
