MAREC Asks New Jersey Public Utilities Board to Reconsider Renewable Energy Requirement Reduction

The Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition (MAREC) filed a motion for reconsideration with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities challenging the Board's recent decision reducing renewable energy requirements for basic generation service in 2020. 

"MAREC is very disappointed that the Board chose to reduce the state's renewable energy procurement in 2020. The purpose of MAREC's reconsideration request is to ask the Board to reverse this decision and also to clarify that the Board's decision does not apply more broadly to all renewable energy procurement nor that the Board intends to apply this ruling beyond the single year of 2020," stated Bruce Burcat, MAREC's Executive Director.

"It is vital that the Board rescind this wrong-headed decision. The Governor and the Legislature have made it clear that New Jersey is expanding efforts to obtain clean renewable power for the people of the Garden State - and this decision does exactly the opposite," said Doug O'Malley, Director of Environment New Jersey.

The New Jersey legislature enacted the Clean Energy Act (CEA) which was signed by Governor Murphy in 2018. This law increased New Jersey's renewable energy requirement to 50% of retail sales by 2030 and the state's solar energy requirement to 5.1% by 2021.  The law was nationally heralded as a major step to increase renewable energy, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and continue New Jersey's role as a renewable energy leader.  

The Board's decision reduces the requirement to procure renewable energy by counting previously separate solar energy purchases by basic generation service providers as counting towards the state's overall renewable energy requirements. A broad application of the decision to the entire RPS would ultimately reduce the state's renewable energy requirement by approximately 5% in 2021 and 2022, and by meaningful decreasing amounts through 2030.

"MAREC does not believe the legislature or the governor intended the CEA to lead to a reduction in anticipated renewable energy procurement.  It is also very frustrating that the Board made this decision in a very short amount of time (between December 7, 2018, the stakeholder meeting date; and December 18, 2018, the Board meeting date) and did not provide any analysis or full record to justify its decision," said Mr. Burcat.

The Board's decision was based on a concern that distributed solar costs would impose prohibitive costs on electricity customers; however, the Board did not provide any examination of costs in making its decision.  MAREC's request for reconsideration seeks a fuller examination of the issue and the development of a comprehensive record as well as seeking clarification from the Board that the decision applies only to the single year of 2020 and solely to basic generation service for that year.

MAREC | www.marec.us