New Jersey
New Jersey jumps to top 10 in national rankings for energy efficiency | ROI-NJ
New Jersey is being recognized as a national leader in energy efficiency programming and outcomes in the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s (ACEEE) 2025 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, which ranks all fifty states and Washington D.C. New Jersey ranked #8, returning to the top 10 for the first time since 2008 and was listed as one of the most improved States.
“We are thrilled to earn this major achievement with our rankings in the 2025 ACEEE State Scorecard,” said NJBPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy. “This confirms our State’s investments in efficiency programs are among the best in the nation at delivering results by reducing energy demand, delivering energy savings, and securing long-term bill stabilization for New Jersey ratepayers.”
“Today’s announcement underscores the tremendous strides New Jersey has made in the years following the signing of the Clean Energy Act into law by Gov. Murphy,” said Eric Miller, executive director of the Office of Climate Action and the Green Economy. “The BPU staff, in partnership with our utilities, have built nation-leading programs that deliver lower energy costs to all New Jerseyans, reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, and employing tens of thousands of New Jerseyans in the clean energy economy.”
According to the ACEEE, New Jersey had the biggest gain in utility energy efficiency savings in the country, jumping nearly 90 percent since the last edition of the Scorecard, including increased investment in low-income programs. New Jersey’s leadership is poised to continue in future years, as the NJBPU set new targets for savings to reach 2 percent annually in the 2026 and 2027 program years, demonstrating how efforts to secure short and long-term utility bill savings and stabilization are paying off.
Over the past few months, the NJBPU advanced major energy efficiency program updates and received hundreds of millions of dollars from President Biden’s bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act to help reduce energy costs for ratepayers.
The Triennium program is the cycle of New Jersey’s multi-year utility-run energy efficiency programs. Established by the Clean Energy Act of 2018, natural gas utilities must achieve energy savings of 0.75 percent, and electric utilities must achieve energy savings of 2 percent of the average annual usage in the prior three years within five years of implementation of their energy efficiency programs.
It is estimated that Triennium 1 (T1) programs, which ran from July 2021 to December 2024, disbursed $1.25 billion in financial incentives to ratepayers statewide and reduced customers’ utility bills by $600 million, annual electricity usage by 3 million megawatt hours, equivalent to the use of approximately 330,000 households per year, and annual natural gas usage by 8.5 million MMBtu. T1 resulted in 1.4 million metric tons of annual greenhouse gas emission reductions, which is equivalent to approximately 300,000 cars removed from the road per year. These results prove that energy efficiency works to reduce energy demand and helps reduce generation-related price increases that will take effect in June 2025.
To build upon the successes of T1, in October 2024, the Board approved the second stage in the Triennium (T2) program, slated to run from January 2025 to June 2027. Collectively, over $3.75 billion has been budgeted for the T2 programs and will be implemented during a 30-month period from January 1, 2025, through June 30, 2027. This investment will help the State achieve Governor Murphy’s goals outlined in Executive Order 316 and are anticipated to reduce annual electricity usage by 2.3 million megawatt hours, annual natural gas usage by 8.9 million MMBtu, and annual greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5 million metric tons.
To promote energy equity, the Income-Qualified Program will have more capacity compared to T1 to provide comprehensive home energy assessments and offer health and safety improvements, weatherization, HVAC, and other energy efficiency upgrades at no cost to eligible customers. More broadly, programs across the utilities’ portfolios will continue to include enhanced incentives and more favorable financing terms for income-eligible customers. One notable addition in T2 is the standardization of the Direct Install model, including a Public Sector Direct Install program pathway, which will help support partners in labor in growing a local workforce that represents the diverse fabric of our state. Approximately 37,000 people work in the clean buildings sector, and T2 will strengthen the pathway for diverse workers and businesses to continue to build the clean energy economy.
Additionally, in January, New Jersey received a historic $183 million award that is anticipated to fund two programs to benefit low-income ratepayers. More specifically, this funding is anticipated to support whole building energy efficiency projects for low-income multifamily homes to enhance comfort, affordability, and low-carbon appliance improvements. The second program will make eligible homes served by the Comfort Partners program electrification-ready by upgrading their electric panels and wiring. Specific program design measures will follow all U.S. Department of Energy award and program guidelines and are contingent on available funding.
The New Jersey Comfort Partners Program is a free program that helps income-eligible customers reduce their utility bills through implementing cost effective measures which save energy and money while improving their home’s safety and comfort at no cost to them. Comfort Partners has helped more than 126,000 families since the program was launched in 2001 and is one of the most effective programs administered by the NJBPU.
“Knowledge is power, and one of the biggest benefits of our energy efficiency programs is giving our customers the opportunity to truly understand how they use their energy and the power to take control where they can,” said Doug Mokoid, president, Jersey Central Power and Light. “By offering a wide variety of programs, we’re able to help customers make the improvements they’re comfortable with, whether they want to dive in and make substantial whole-home improvements or go with smaller projects that can still add up to have a big impact.”
“It’s incredible to see this well-deserved recognition of New Jersey’s enhanced commitment to energy efficiency. This progress is driven by the leadership of the state, as well as the efforts and commitment of its utility companies and trade allies,” said Patrick Migliaccio, senior vice president and COO, New Jersey Natural Gas. “New Jersey Natural Gas is proud to be a part of this story, with a record of more than 15 years administering energy-efficiency solutions through our SAVEGREEN program, helping customers save energy while lowering carbon emissions. The next generation of energy-efficiency programs build on that success, with broad-based offerings that put energy-saving measures in reach for more customers and drive smart energy practices and innovative technologies. As always, we recognize and thank the Board of Public Utilities for their continued support of energy-efficiency programs as we work toward a cleaner energy future together.”
“Energy efficiency is an important tool in helping customers lower their energy use and costs, and New Jersey’s ranking in ACEEE’s 2025 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard reflects the strong collaboration between utilities, policymakers, and communities. Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) remains committed to expanding access to energy-saving programs that drive meaningful benefits for our customers and the environment,” said Lauren Thomas, vice president, Clean Energy Solutions, PSE&G.
“SJI congratulates the State of New Jersey on this key accomplishment,” said Maureen Minkel, senior director, marketing and energy efficiency, SJI Utilities. “By prioritizing energy efficiency, it’s important for us to provide our customers with energy-saving programs, tools and resources and to remain committed to helping them manage energy usage and save money in the communities we serve.”
“Rockland Electric Company is proud of the progress we have made in promoting and implementing our energy efficiency programs in northern New Jersey,” said Michele O’Connell, president and CEO of Orange and Rockland Utilities. “As our company continues to work with the state to advance clean energy goals, our customers have embraced every opportunity to be more energy efficient, which has ultimately had a positive impact on their monthly bills.”
“New Jersey’s top 10 ranking clearly demonstrates that customers are embracing energy efficiency, and that the work of the state, the BPU and our member utilities to advance clean energy goals is truly having a positive effect,” said Richard Henning, president and CEO of New Jersey Utilities Association. “This achievement is a great success and underscores the value and effectiveness of our utilities’ energy efficiency programs.”
“For the first time in two decades, New Jersey has earned a spot in the top ten of the ACEEE 2025 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard – a monumental achievement for our state! This recognition is a testament to the incredible progress we’ve made in advancing energy efficiency policies that help families and businesses lower their energy costs, create good-paying jobs in the clean energy sector, and reduce harmful pollution,” said Ed Potosnak, executive director, New Jersey League of Conservation Voters. “The cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use, and energy efficiency is one of the most effective tools to fight climate change while making energy more affordable and reliable for all New Jerseyans. This milestone comes at a critical time as we continue to push for passage of the 100 percent clean electricity by 2035 bill. We are doubling down and ensuring that New Jersey remains a national leader in energy affordability, climate action, job creation, and environmental justice. Let’s keep up the momentum.”
“This is a comeback a long time in the making for New Jersey to once again be in the Top 10 most energy efficient states on the ACEEE scorecard,” said Doug O’Malley, director, Environment New Jersey. “These top metrics reflect a focused commitment from the NJBPU both to implement Triennium 1’s successful energy efficiency programs and to launch Triennium 2’s historic investment in building decarbonization and demand response programs this year. Coupled with the federal IRA tax credits, these NJBPU historic investments provide relief ahead of coming utility bill increases this summer. The ACEEE accolades also mean that New Jersey is using less energy and producing less climate and air pollution — this is a list that we want the NJBPU to be on every year.”
“The Energy Efficiency Alliance of New Jersey applauds New Jersey for achieving a top 10 ranking in ACEEE’s latest state scorecard for energy savings metrics,” said Jeaneen Zappa, executive director, Energy Efficiency Alliance of New Jersey. “As a trade organization for the Garden State’s energy efficiency industry, we know that these rankings reflect smart, innovative policies in the state and lots of persistent, on-the-groundwork from our member businesses. Together, they slash energy bills for consumers and support family-sustaining, clean energy jobs every day. Policy tools—such as well-designed utility programs, efficiency tax credits, and initiatives like the NJ Cool program for building retrofits—further benefit New Jersey residents.”
Four-minute read
The legend of the Jersey Shore 4th of July lobster
William Sharp caught the mother of all New Jersey lobsters on July 4th, 2003.
While you’re sitting around the grill this July 4 holiday, raise a glass to William Sharp, who caught the mother of all New Jersey lobsters on this day in 2003.
He was diving on the sunken remains of the Almirante, an old banana boat that everyone knows as the “flour wreck,” which is a story unto itself. The 378-foot freighter belonged to the United Fruit Co. and was steaming from New York City to Colon, Panama, with a full cargo hold.
At 2 a.m., Sept. 6, 1918, a Navy tanker slammed into the ship in rough seas and heavy fog off the South Jersey coast. The Almirante went down in four minutes; five of its 105 crewmembers and passengers didn’t make it out and its entire cargo load was lost. For days after the wreck, a white frothy foam washed up onto the shore, leading people to falsely believe the ship was carrying flour to the banana plantations. Its manifold said it was carrying produce.
As if that’s not enough, during a submarine patrol in July 1942 in the early days of World War II, a blimp spotted the shape of the wreck from the air and reported it as a possible German U-boat. A Coast Guard cutter dropped five depth charges on the wreck, blowing it to pieces. It now lays in scattered pieces of steel in 70 feet of water, nine miles outside Absecon Inlet.
It was under one of those twisted, steel plates that Sharp, a retired Navy shipyard worker, had his standoff with what would turn out to be a New Jersey state record lobster.
“It’s so confusing down there. You can only see 15 feet, 30 feet in front of you on a good day,” said Sharp, who’s 71 today and living where he always has, on a lagoon in the Mystic Islands section of Little Egg Harbor, or “the end of the world,” as he puts it.
Sharp spotted the lobster in its hiding spot with a flashlight. But he was out of air. So he cut the rope to his dive reel, and tied it off at the lobster’s location. He then followed his anchor rope back to his boat called Kitchen Table, aptly named because that’s where his friends all sat around in the winter, planning their dives and fishing trips.
Forty minutes later and with a fresh tank of air, Sharp went back down, following the line on his dive reel. The lobster was still there. He turned the light off, because a bright light can spook the crustacean. Then he reached in with his hand and grabbed hold of the giant lobster, trying not to get pinched by one of its massive claws.
“The lobster will stand up in defense and just get itself stuck in there,” Sharp said. “You have to dig the sand out from under it.”
With the water cloudy with floating sand particles, Sharp won his tug of water and surfaced with the biggest lobster ever caught by a diver in New Jersey waters since the state started keeping records.
The lobster weighed 15 pounds, 3 ounces; it’s carapace, or body, measured 7½ inches. The state’s Fish & Wildlife sent a marine scientist to Scott’s Bait & Tackle, where the lobster was certified, to investigate. A month later, Sharp’s find was anointed king of the lobsters.
Ok, maybe not king of all the lobsters, but his catch became the official state record lobster landed by a recreational fisherman or diver. The record may never be broken either. New Jersey’s Fish & Wildlife retired the lobster category because lobsters that size are illegal to catch recreationally these days. The carapace can’t be bigger than 5¼ inches.
While Sharp’s 15 pounder is the biggest ever recorded by the state for a diver, American lobsters can get bigger, though it’s not common. The largest American lobster was 44 pounds and captured off Nova Scotia in 1977. There is also a Maine legend of a 51.5-pound lobster caught in 1926, but the mount was lost after it got smashed during transportation.
There are New Jersey divers too, that have claimed bigger lobsters, but they just never got them certified. Retired diver Mike Schwartz of Millville said the late Tom Conley caught a 20.4-pound lobster on the wreck Morand, which he said is 30 miles in the ocean from Cape May.
The year was 2001. Schwartz and Conley were diving off of the late Capt. Sam Still’s boat Samar III. Schwartz, who is 77 today, said it never dawned on them to certify the lobster for a record.
“We caught so many big lobsters back then, I don’t think we even thought about records,” Schwartz said.
As far as the fate of the Sharp’s lobster goes, he ate it. But it was too big to cook all at once. It took him and a friend a week to finish it off.
“I didn’t have a pot big enough. I had to eat it one claw at a time. I saved the parts,” Sharp said.
He had the lobster’s carapace, head and claws mounted. He keeps it on shelf with other nautical items. It’s red color long faded out, the lobster mount is now beige.
When Jersey Shore native Dan Radel is not reporting the news, you can find him in a college classroom where he is a history professor. Reach him @danielradelapp; 732-643-4072; dradel@gannettnj.com.
New Jersey
Air conditioning fails at Delaney Hall as heat wave leaves detainees struggling to breathe • The Jersey Vindicator
Advocates say temperatures became unbearable inside one housing unit as the region’s heat wave intensified.
Detainees at Newark’s Delaney Hall have told activists that the air conditioning has failed in part of the controversial immigrant detention center, leaving some people sleeping naked and struggling to breathe as a scorching heat wave descends on the region.
Sally Pillay, an advocate with Eyes on ICE who regularly speaks to detainees and their families, told The Jersey Vindicator Thursday afternoon that some of the roughly 150 detainees housed in Unit 4 began calling their families early July 2 to complain that they couldn’t breathe or sleep because of the high temperatures.
It’s not the first time this has happened. Pillay said the cooling system had been on the fritz all week before finally failing sometime Wednesday.
But conditions have gotten far more dangerous as air temperatures soared past 100 degrees.
“There’s no ventilation or circulation,” she said of the unit. “It’s extremely hot, and it’s humid … it’s unbearable. They’re sleeping with no clothes on, and they feel fatigued.”
Activists said they reached out to the city of Newark but did not hear back.
A spokesperson for GEO Group, the private prison firm that runs the 1,000-bed facility on Doremus Avenue, did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
But a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Jersey Vindicator in an email Thursday evening, July 2, that the agency has added portable air conditioning units and access to ice water while it oversees repairs. Activists disputed the claims Thursday night and said that AC units and ice water have not been provided yet.
“The rapid response to this incident demonstrates ICE’s commitment to uphold the highest detention standards, following all applicable health and safety guidelines,” the spokesperson wrote.
Meanwhile, members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation have also gotten involved.
In a social media post, U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez, a Union County Democrat who has visited Delaney Hall many times, wrote that his office will “continue to press ICE to ensure that this matter is addressed with the urgency required during this extreme heat wave and will do so until air conditioning is restored.”
Pillay said the situation has been worsened by poor drinking water, which detainees have long said tastes metallic and “off.” It seems to have gotten even worse lately, she added.
“Apparently, it’s discolored, yellow, and dirty, like it’s not being filtered,” she said. “And it tastes very bad.”
That means detainees enduring misery-inducing heat must also choke down water they otherwise wouldn’t drink.
Kathy O’Leary, the coordinator of Pax Christi New Jersey, said the imposing fortress near the mouth of Newark Bay has had HVAC issues almost since it opened in May 2025.
Several dorms remained frigid over the winter, she said, but the heat blasted through another unit to the point where “everybody was roasting.”
But the summer heat has taken it to another level.
“This is not a new thing,” Pillay added. “Definitely not.”
The air conditioning failure is another in a long list of complaints voiced by detainees, their families, and immigration activists about Delaney Hall, which they say forces undocumented immigrants swept up in the Trump administration’s immigration raids to live in squalor.
About 300 detainees launched a hunger and labor strike in May to draw attention to their plight and convince Gov. Mikie Sherrill to meet with them. The strike drew national attention, and protesters flocked to the area for weeks of demonstrations that often turned violent.
When asked why she believes GEO Group didn’t fix the air conditioning earlier, Pillay said bluntly that it’s a for-profit entity that “always wants to cut corners.”
“They wait for an issue to get so big that we have to complain,” she said. “They want to house people in this facility, but they cannot fix the infrastructure. We have seen so many issues in this facility.”
“It’s very sad, it’s shocking, and it’s appalling that this is the way we’re treating human beings,” she continued. “And GEO, which is making millions and millions of dollars, doesn’t care about the human beings being warehoused in this facility.”
Steve Janoski is a multi-award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Post, USA Today, the Associated Press, The Bergen Record and the Asbury Park Press. His reporting has exposed corruption, government malfeasance and police misconduct
The risks and costs of being a data broker in the United States just went up — again. On 30 June 2026, Gov. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., signed A 5328 into law, making New Jersey the seventh state to enact a data broker law, and the second this year, following Connecticut. The bill was introduced and signed over the course of a few days, as New Jersey’s Legislature sprinted toward an end-of-fiscal-year budget deadline.
This is not a simple copy-paste of any other state. The most notable divergence is its breadth. It creates requirements not only for data brokers, but also for data collectors, entities that have a direct relationship with individuals but sell their personal data to data brokers.
Its greatest impact comes from the creation of a tiered — and costly — structure for annual registration fees, requiring the largest data brokers and data collectors to pay a USD1.5 million annual registration fee. Although the minimum fee, payable for selling the personal data of any number of New Jersey consumers, is not the highest in the country, the second tier is higher than any other state, and kicks in at 100,000 consumers. Data brokers and data collectors also face significant fines for failing to register or update their registration information.
Further, the law prohibits the sale of sensitive data both through the data broker provisions and by amending New Jersey’s consumer data privacy law. Violations of that prohibition carry a severe USD50,000-per-record fine.
The law takes effect immediately, except for the requirement that the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs create a registry, which takes effect 270 days after enactment, on 27 March 2027.
Data brokers and their suppliers
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