Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman ALIXON COLLAZOS-GILL
District 27 (Essex and Passaic)
Assemblyman BENJIE E. WIMBERLY
District 35 (Bergen and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
"Emission Reduction Innovation Act"; authorizes gas public utilities to develop and implement plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas and supplementing Title 48 of the Revised Statues.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. The act shall be known and may be cited as the "Emission Reduction Innovation Act."
2. As used in this act:
"Biogas" means gas created by the anaerobic digestion of biomass, the gasification of biomass, or any other effective conversion process.
"Board" means the Board of Public Utilities.
"Carbon capture and utilization" means processes to capture greenhouse gases that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and the use of those gases, or process byproducts, to create industrial or commercial products for sale.
"Carbon-free resource" means an electricity generation facility that, when operating, does not contribute to Statewide greenhouse gas emissions.
"Cost recovery mechanism" means the process by which a gas public utility seeks to recover the costs of implementing a utility innovation plan pursuant to this act, including the cost of capital established by the Board of Public Utilities in the gas public utilitys most recent rate case, depreciation and other operating, maintenance, research, and development costs. "Cost recovery mechanism" includes, but is not limited to, existing cost recovery mechanisms administered by the Board of Public Utilities.
"Deep energy retrofit" means the installation of any measure or combination of measures, including air sealing and addressing thermal bridges that under normal weather and operating conditions can reasonably be expected to reduce the building's calculated design load to ten or fewer British Thermal Units per hour per square foot of conditioned floor area. "Deep energy retrofit" does not include the installation of photovoltaic electric generation equipment, but may include the installation of a solar thermal project.
"District energy" means an interconnected infrastructure network for heating and cooling that uses the constant temperature of the earth or underground aquifers as a thermal exchange medium to provide thermal energy or cooling to a dedicated subset of buildings that may vary in use, size, and number.
"Gas public utility" means a public utility, as that term is defined in R.S.48:2-13, that distributes natural gas to end users within this State.
"Greenhouse gas" means the same as the term is defined in section 3 of P.L.2007, c.112 (C.26:2C-39).
"Hybrid energy system" means the installation of a system for the combined use of electric and gas end-use equipment in a building application where the installation (1) will result in a net reduction in Statewide greenhouse gas emissions over the life of the equipment, inclusive of the consideration of the carbon intensity of the electricity used and calculated in a manner consistent with the Department of Environmental Protection's current methodology for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions, as compared to the most efficient commercially available natural gas alternative, and (2) is installed and operated in a manner that improves the customer's electric public utility's load factor.
"Innovative resource" means the use of biogas, renewable natural gas, power-to-hydrogen, power-to-ammonia, carbon capture and utilization, or the deployment of a hybrid energy system, microgrid, on-site generation, district energy, or energy efficiency project, or any other emerging innovative resource proposed by a gas public utility that reduces lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions.
"Lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions" means the greenhouse gas emissions of an energy generation system, considering the emissions produced by the production, processing, transmission, and consumption of energy associated with the system over its entire useful life.
"Microgrid" means an interconnected infrastructure network for energy delivery that distributes energy to a dedicated subset of buildings that may vary in use, size, and number.
"On-site generation" means the use of equipment that generates necessary energy for a customer at their premises, including, but not limited to, combined heat and power, micro combined heat and power, fuel cells, and backup generators that displace source emissions.
"Power-to-ammonia" means the creation of ammonia from hydrogen created via power-to-hydrogen using a process that has lower lifecycle greenhouse gas intensity than conventional geologic natural gas.
"Power-to-hydrogen" means the use of electricity generated by a carbon-free resource to create hydrogen.
"Renewable energy certificate" or "REC" means a certificate representing the environmental benefits or attributes of one megawatt-hour of electric power generation from an electric power generation facility that produces renewable energy.
"Renewable natural gas" means biogas that has been processed to be interchangeable with conventional natural gas and have lower lifecycle greenhouse gas intensity than conventional geologic natural gas.
"Total incremental program cost" means the sum of (1) the return of and on capital investments for the production, processing, pipeline interconnection, storage, distribution, or other costs associated with the development of innovative resources included in a utility innovation plan approved pursuant to this act, (2) the incremental operating costs associated with capital investments in infrastructure for the production, processing, pipeline interconnection, storage, distribution, or other costs associated with the development of innovative resources included in a utility innovation plan approved pursuant to this act, (3) the incremental cost to procure innovative resources from third parties, (4) the incremental costs to develop and administer programs included in a utility innovation plan, and (5) incremental costs for research and development, including support for market transformation activities, related to innovative resources approved pursuant to this act, minus the sum of (1) any value received by the gas public utility upon the resale of an innovative resource or its byproducts including any environmental credits included with the resale of renewable gaseous fuels or value received by the gas public utility when an innovative resource is used as vehicle fuel, (2) any cost savings achieved through avoidance of conventional natural gas purchases, including, but not limited to, any avoided commodity purchases or avoided pipeline costs, and (3) any other revenues received by the utility that are directly attributable to the utility's implementation of a utility innovation plan pursuant to this act.
3. a. A gas public utility may file a utility innovation plan with the board on or after the effective date of this act. The plan shall describe or include, as applicable, the following components:
(1) the innovative resources the utility plans to implement to advance the State's greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals established by the "Global Warming Response Act," P.L.2007, c.112 (C.26:2C-37 et al.), within the requirements and limitations set forth in this section;
(2) any recommended research and development investments related to innovative resources the utility plans to undertake as part of the utility innovation plan;