Bill Text: NJ A5060 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires BPU to discontinue Infrastructure Investment Program.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-12-09 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee [A5060 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A5060-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman ALEX SAUICKIE
District 12 (Burlington, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean)
SYNOPSIS
Requires BPU to discontinue Infrastructure Investment Program.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning the Infrastructure Investment Program and supplementing Title 48 of the Revised Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. a. The Board of Public Utilities shall discontinue the board's Infrastructure Investment Program established by the board pursuant to rules and regulations adopted by the board and published in the New Jersey Administrative Code. Beginning on the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), the board shall not:
(1) accept any new Infrastructure Investment Program petition; or
(2) approve any pending Infrastructure Investment Program petition without conducting a full rate review for the public utility whose petition under the program is pending on the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill).
b. The board shall require any public utility with a pending Infrastructure Investment Program petition on the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill) to either:
(1) include the public utility's investment proposal, formerly included in the pending petition, in the public utility's next base rate case; or
(2) provide all information necessary for a full rate review, in order for the board to process the public utility's Infrastructure Investment Program petition, within 90 days of a board order to this effect. In the event that a public utility fails to provide the required information within 90 days of a board order, the petition shall be deemed retracted by the public utility. Alternatively, the board may, in its discretion, authorize a new deadline for the public utility to provide all information necessary for a full rate review. In the event that a public utility fails to provide the required information prior to a subsequent deadline set by the board, the petition shall be deemed retracted by the public utility and shall no longer be eligible for consideration independently from the public utility's base rate case.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill requires the Board of Public Utilities (board) to discontinue the Infrastructure Investment Program (IIP) established by the board pursuant to rules and regulations adopted by the board and published in the New Jersey Administrative Code. The board is prohibited from accepting any new IIP petition or approving any IIP petition pending on the bill's effective date without conducting a full rate review for the public utility whose petition is pending.
Under the bill, the board is to require any public utility with a pending IIP petition on the bill's effective date to either: (1) include the public utility's investment proposal, formerly included in the pending petition, in the public utility's next base rate case; or (2) provide all information necessary for a full rate review, in order for the board to process the public utility's IIP petition, within 90 days of a board order to this effect. In the event that a public utility fails to provide the required information within 90 days of a board order, the petition is to be deemed retracted by the public utility.
Alternatively, the board may, in its discretion, authorize a new deadline for the public utility to provide all information necessary for a full rate review. In the event that a public utility fails to provide the required information prior to a subsequent deadline set by the board, the petition is to be deemed retracted by the public utility and will no longer be eligible for consideration independently from the public utility's base rate case.
It is the sponsor's intent that the board be required to discontinue the IIP in response to the testimony provided by the Director of the Division of Rate Counsel during the October 2, 2024 Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities Committee meeting. The Division of Rate Counsel (division) opposes the use of the IIP, a single-issue ratemaking mechanism, because there is no opportunity to look at the overall health of a utility seeking approval on an IIP project. The division also testified that by allowing utilities to earn an accelerated return on capital investments outside a base rate case, the IIP creates more expense for ratepayers than projects done within the normal course of a utility's business.
