NJ Senate committee passes bill for 80% renewable energy standard

Dive Brief:

New Jersey's Senate Environment and Energy Committee this week passed a measure calling for an 80% renewable energy standard in the state by 2050, with an 11% requirement beginning next year and increasing by 10% every five years.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Bob Smith, told The Record it is an "aggressive" goal, but said the state "needs to be a leader in renewable energy because we are so impacted by global climate." A nearly identical bill passed the Senate last year but stalled before the session concluded.
Critics, including Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, say the measure could drive up power prices by more than $1 billion over the next five years. However, a poll released last year by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation found more than three quarters of the state back further investing in renewables, and would support the 80% standard.

Dive Insight:

The New Jersey Senate is, once again, attempting to bolster renewable energy in the state. The Record notes the standard being considered now is virtually identical to a measure passed 25-14 last year. That bill, however, never came to a vote in the Assembly.

“Other states will pass New Jersey by, taking jobs with them if we don’t lead the way,” Tom Gilbert, campaign director of Rethink Energy New Jersey, told The Record. “Clean energy is not a partisan issue,”

Gilbert pointed to the Fairleigh Dickinson poll, which last year showed wide support for bringing more renewable energy online. In that survey, some 77% of respondents showed high concern for climate change in New Jersey and 78% favored the 80% standard.

Currently, New Jersey has a 22% renewables goal.

"For years now, nations in Europe and elsewhere have already locked in this choice to transition to renewable energy. Now it's a growing trend in the U.S.," Lyle Rawlings, president of the Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Industries Association, said of the survey. "New York,California and Hawaii have all adopted energy plans with very aggressive requirements for renewable electricity. New Jersey can be part of leading the way in this transition to a sustainable future."

The measure will now head to the full Senate for consideration.

“I shudder to think what that will do to our state,” Mike Proto, spokesman for the New Jersey chapter of Americans for Prosperity, told The Record. “No state has an electricity mandate even close to this level and this bill would lead New Jersey into uncharted and dangerous territory.”