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Committee adopts amendments, releases outdoor‑lighting bill after scientist testimony on health and ecosystems
Summary
S-1610/A-2196, revised with committee amendments to require fully shielded fixtures, motion sensors and lower color-temperature limits on some state-funded lighting, was released after testimony from a documentary filmmaker and Princeton astrophysicist describing effects of light pollution on health, wildlife and energy waste.
The Senate Energy and Environment Committee on Feb. 10 released S-1610 (and its Assembly companion A-2196) after adopting committee amendments that align the Senate bill to the Assembly version and add several technical limits on outdoor lighting.
Committee amendments consolidate light-output requirements to require fully shielded, full-cutoff luminaires with a 0 U0 backlight/uplight/glare rating; require sports-field lighting to be turned off when not in use; set a maximum correlated color temperature of 4,200 Kelvin for permitted outdoor sports fixtures (down from 5,700 K); and require motion-sensor devices that automatically dim and turn fixtures on/off in appropriate use-cases. The amendments exempt high-security areas and direct the Division of Property Management to coordinate with the Board of Public Utilities on uniform standards for state buildings and funding programs.
Witnesses included Jared Fletcher, a documentary filmmaker who described broad public concern about light pollution, and Gaspar Bakos, a Princeton astrophysicist who summarized research tying light pollution to energy waste, ecological impacts and possible health correlations. Committee members asked technical questions about the science and application; the committee moved and released the legislation with the stated amendments.
