A Senate committee on Monday unanimously approved bipartisan legislation, supported by the fossil fuel industry, that prohibits the state from mandating electric heating or electric water heating systems for New Jersey homes and businesses.
Critics called it a predatory delay that reveals a fossil fuel sector on the defensive as environmentalists draw attention to an often underestimated health risk and driver of climate change to argue that the nation should ban gas hookups in new buildings.
The bill, S-4133 sponsored by Senators Vin Gopal (D-11) Steve Oroho (R-24) and Paul Sarlo (D-36) was released by the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee and now goes to the full Senate for consideration.
Doug O’Malley, the director of Environment New Jersey, said the legislation is a “Bad bill pushed by fossil fuel industry to cut off a pathway to building electrification at the same moment fossil prices are skyrocketing.”
O’Malley called the measure “ill considered” and he noted that there are no state electrification mandates, so the industry responsible for deadly climate change is influencing lawmakers to ‘solve’ a problem that doesn’t exist.
S4133 would forbid the Department of Community Affairs, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Board of Public Utilities, or any other state agencies from mandating electric systems as the sole or primary means of providing hot water and heat to buildings.
The measure falsely implies electrification is more expensive and is currently being mandated when nothing could be further from the truth.
“This legislation is a blatant gift to the frack gas lobby,” said Lisa McCormick, a New Jersey environmentalist. “The bill is being rushed through committee during a lame-duck session, when the legislators hope the public won’t notice them erecting a roadblock to action that might avert a climate catastrophe.”
“With global energy demand expected to increase by as much as 58 percent in the next three decades, the urgency to transition away from fossil fuels is growing,” said McCormick. “As the scientific consensus is that burning fossil fuel is going to kill people, electrification of appliances and transportation must be a primary strategy to fight climate change.”
At least a dozen states have now passed laws prohibiting cities from restricting gas hookups in new construction, and just as many have introduced similar bills this year.
The laws have dealt a stinging setback to the accelerating effort among cities to ban natural gas—a significant contributor of emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide that is accelerating the climate crisis.
Gas appliances typically last 10 to 15 years, so any new gas appliances installed before 2030 should be replaced by electric ones by 2050, said McCormick, who added that achieving a goal agreed to by New Jersey, the US and the international community will require governments at all levels to make rules that encourage or require electrification.
Rachel Golden, the deputy director of the Sierra Club’s building electrification program, is on the front lines of the movement.
Golden said electrifying buildings is necessary to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, an aim set by President Biden that aligns with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
“In order to make buildings carbon neutral by 2050, we need to phase out the sale of gas appliances by 2030,” said Golden, who explained that investments in devices that use dirty power sources will prolong the danger posed by climate change.
“The gas industry has wielded enormous power and influence for decades and is now facing an existential threat. As coal disappears, they know they are next,” said Bruce Nilles, the executive director of the Climate Imperative project at Energy Innovation, a think tank focusing on clean energy policy.
“This bill protects the rights of consumers and businesses to make their own choice of fuel for heating purposes,” said Ray Cantor, a lobbyist with the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. “With each New Jersey household with gas heat potentially facing tens of thousands of dollars in costs to retrofit their homes for electric heat pumps, as the EMP urges, it’s completely appropriate that residents maintain this freedom of choice.”
McCormick said spiking gas prices are a preview of an energy transition gone wrong.
“It is also imperative that we allow for new technologies to develop that may be more cost effective and environmentally friendly,” Cantor said. “We should not lock ourselves into an ‘electrify everything’ mentality. In fact, studies have shown that we would actually increase our carbon emissions if we do away with natural gas heat and force everyone to use dirtier fuels from the PJM grid.”
“Forty-seven percent of natural gas and 99 percent of coal is priced at less than half its true cost, so fossil fuel prices would be much greater if they did not rely on government subsidies,” said McCormick. “Coal, oil, and natural gas received $5.9 trillion in subsidies in 2020 — or roughly $11 million every minute — according to an analysis from the International Monetary Fund.”
The legislation prohibits any state agency from adopting rules and regulations that mandate the use of electric systems as the sole or primary means of heating residences or commercial buildings.
As Americans face $5 per gallon at the pump and warnings of 50 percent increases to their home heating bills this winter, the country is getting a taste of the risks of a poorly managed energy transition.
The bill would not prohibit any person, state agency or business from offering incentives or from voluntarily installing an electric heating system, but McCormick said more needs to be done and she disputed Cantor’s assertion that millions of households in New Jersey “will be collectively paying tens of billions of dollars”
“Some countries are reluctant to raise energy prices because they think it will harm working class and lower-income people, but holding down fossil fuel prices is a terribly inefficient way to help the poor, because most of the benefits accrue to wealthier households,” said McCormick. “It would be far better to target resources towards helping poor and vulnerable people directly, and by creating a vast number of good jobs as part of a broader transition to a clean energy economy as described in the Green New Deal.”
McCormick attributed the votes to corrupt influence from fossil fuel companies that fund hefty political contributions and said this vote confirms the need for campaign finance reform in New Jersey.
Gopal, in 3 races for public office has raised a total of $2,964,009, according to the National Institute on Money in Politics. Oroho has raised a total of $2,479,566 in five races for public office, while Sarlo has raised a total of $7,202,707 in seven election campaigns.
The senators voting for the anti-environmental legislation in committee were Troy Singleton, Ronald Rice, Christopher Connors, Declan O’Scanlon, and Brian Stack.
The senator who sponsored the legislation and supported it in committee are pictured at the top of this article.