ASSEMBLY ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

ASSEMBLY, No. 297

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED: APRIL 22, 1996

      The Assembly Environment, Science and Technology Committee favorably reports an Assembly Committee Substitute for Assembly Bill No. 297.

      The committee substitute requires the General Services Administration in the Department of the Treasury to review and modify all bid and product specifications relating to the purchase of machinery and electrical equipment using more than the equivalent of 20,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year to provide that the specifications encourage the purchase of the most energy efficient machinery and electrical equipment. The committee substitute requires the General Services Administration, when purchasing machinery and electrical equipment for the State, or for counties municipalities, or school districts, to give preference to the most energy efficient machinery and electrical equipment. The committee substitute prohibits any local unit of government or the State from purchasing any new electrically powered device that does not have permanently affixed to it information identifying the component efficiency rating of the device. The committee substitute further directs the Board of Public Utilities to adopt rules and regulations establishing technical guidelines for use in determining and ranking the energy efficiency of machinery and electrical equipment.

      Finally, the committee substitute would require that all State and local governmental entities, except bi-state entities, request no-cost energy audits of their existing operations from their local public utility companies and submit to the Board of Public Utilities a plan for economically feasible and cost-savings improvements that the governmental entities wish to make based upon audit results. Upon approval, the governmental entities would implement the energy savings improvements. Governmental entities already participating in energy efficiency or energy conservation programs, to the extent of their participation, would be exempt from the audit, as would those governmental entities unable to receive no-cost energy audits from their local utilities.

      The Board of Public Utilities is required to recommend to the Governor and the Legislature the types of funding programs that will be necessary for local governments to implement the improvements.