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Sign the solar permitting law, governor

By: John McKeon
and Robert Karabinchak
Your Turn
Guest columnists

..... Early in July, [2025] President Donald Trump signed legislation that is expected to raise energy prices and exacerbate our energy affordability crisis nationwide.
..... To add insult to injury, our regional electric grid operator, known as PJM Incorporated last month, [07/2025] announced that its latest energy price auction results hit another record high - partially because of a massive backlog on feting clean energy projects Online.
..... As legislative leaders here in New Jersey, our focus is on delivering utility bill savings to our fellow New Jerseyans and shoring up our electric grid. One of the best ways to achieve both of these goals is to speed up deployment of more rooftop solar and batteries all across the state.
..... To make solar and battery installation cheaper and easier for families, we authorized - and the Legislature unanimously passed - bill (S4100/A5264) that would accelerate and streamline the permitting process. By signing it into law, Governor Phil Murphy can show residents that New Jersey is serious about providing affordable and reliable power while continuing to make progress toward our climate goals.
..... Our state has long been a solar leader. New Jerseyans have realized that by going solar they can reduce their electricity bills protect themselves during extreme weather events and do their part to help reduce climate and air pollutants.
..... But when families in our state want to go solar, they encounter burdensome permitting red tape that drives up installation costs and leads, to more than one in five projects getting canceled. Easing permitting is one of those rare wins for all involved -saving time and money for families, local installers and local governess. And now, at a time when the Trump administration and its allies in Congress are elimination federal tax credits for homeowners who choose to save on their utility bills, New Jersey can establish itself as a nationwide leader on solar accessibility by signing S4100/A5264 into law.
..... The current process fro getting rooftop solar in New Jersey is frustrating and resource-intensive. To install solar on your home, you first need a permit application approved by your typically overburdened city or town. Permitting officials spend hours manually working through extensive code compliance checks, rounding up approvals from many different departments and ensuring that often-antiquated requirements are met. No one wants the extra costs or uncertainties created by this process when making a change to their power supply.

What our legislation would do

..... The legislation we introduced to address these problems would make "smart permitting" for rooftop solar and home batteries available statewide - allowing famines with code-complaint projects to get the approvals they need Online, almost instantly.
..... The good news is that hundreds of cities across the country are already using smart permitting to fast-track solar applications, quickly and safety delivering energy independence and lower bills to their residents. For example, across the jurisdictions where Solar APP+ the smart permitting platform developed by the federal government, is in use, the software sped up the approval process by an average of 14 business days and saved more than 15,000 hours of local government staff time.
..... We know that smart permitting can unlock tremendous benefits for New Jersey. Earlier this year, [2025] the Brown University Climate Solutions Lab estimated that adopting smart permitting state wide could reduce the cost of installing a typical rooftop system by as much as $4,500 and result in an additional 200,000 residential solar systems being deployed by 2040.
..... This legislation passed both the state Senate and Assembly on a bipartisan basis. The landslide of support it has received reflects a consensus that especially in the face of soaring electricity costs and demand, we need to empower New Jerseyans to take control of their own energy futures.
..... Murphy has the opportunity to bring solar permitting into the 21st century, reduce costs and burdens on our communities, rapidly get clean energy Online and saver ratepayers money. We urge him to sign S4100/A5264 into law. That will be a win for our environment, our grid and all of us.

..... John McKeon is the state Senator for the 27th Legislative District and Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak is a state assemblyman for the 18th Legislative District.

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