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Senate panel advances bill to pilot thermal energy networks despite ratepayer concerns

Senate Environment and Energy Committee · February 12, 2026
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

The Senate Environment and Energy Committee released S684 to establish a multi-regional thermal-energy pilot, broadened from geothermal to all thermal technologies; the bill won unanimous committee support despite opposition from the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, which warned of costs to utility ratepayers.

The Senate Environment and Energy Committee on Monday voted to release S684, a bill establishing a pilot program that would allow gas utilities to develop and recover costs for thermal-energy networks, broadened in committee to include all thermal energy sources and technologies.

Chairman Smith summarized committee amendments that lengthen the pilot from three to four years, permit utilities to recover costs for more than one thermal-energy network project, authorize regionally allocated approvals, allow the Board…

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