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The Christie administration has just issued the draft of the 2011 Energy Master Plan. Two of the overarching goals are "Drive down the cost of energy for all consumers" and "Promote a diverse portfolio of new, clean, in-State generation".
Since 2003, the State of New Jersey has had legislation that allows local governments to play a leading role in implementing the two goals above.
Unluckily, this opportunity has been completely ignored.
The Government Energy Aggregation Act of 2003 (PL. 2003, C24), authorizes municipalities and/or counties of New Jersey to establish Government Energy Aggregation (GEA) programs simply by passing an ordinance or a resolution. A GEA program allows municipalities, working alone or in a group, to aggregate the energy requirements of residential, commercial and municipal accounts at the same time. This approach gives the opportunity to qualified Third Party Suppliers (TPS) to bid on contracts for substantial quantities of energy (electricity and/or natural gas) that are put on the market by municipalities participating in a GEA program.
New Jersey residents are already receiving offers to procure electricity and gas from suppliers, other than the local utilities, based on an array of, sometimes confusing, plans with potentially expensive early termination clauses. GEA programs allow municipalities, working alone or in a group, to offer their constituents a substantially higher level of protection and assurance without any additional risk to themselves.
The current NJ legislation and the subsequent BPU rules, contain clauses that make implementation of GEA programs extremely favorable to the end users. Among the most notable features are:
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