"New Jersey Natural Gas Modernization Act."

The 'eligible site' definition no longer requires that a natural gas-fired generating unit operated within the preceding 60 months, removing that time limit entirely. This means sites where units shut down years ago can now qualify for expedited permitting.

The 'eligible site' infrastructure requirement was loosened from 'the necessary site infrastructure, including interconnection facilities, gas supply, and cooling or emissions-control systems' to 'some necessary site infrastructure, which may include, but shall not be limited to' those items. This lowers the bar for what a site must have in place to qualify.

The definition of 'permit' was expanded to include the Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act (C.13:9B-1 et seq.) and any permits or authorizations for minor source air facilities, operating permits, waterfront development, and flood hazard area control established by department rules. The prior reference to subchapter 22 of chapter 27 of Title 7 N.J.A.C. was removed from the list.

A new prioritization requirement was added in Section 4(a): the DEP must prioritize permit issuance to (1) qualifying projects that use renewable natural gas over those that do not, and (2) qualifying projects on sites where a unit operated within the preceding 60 months, though the department retains discretion to issue permits for older sites.

The detailed definition of 'PJM Interconnection, L.L.C.' was replaced with a cross-reference to section 3 of P.L.1999, c.23 (C.48:3-51), and the short name 'PJM' was added as an acceptable alternative.

The entire STATEMENT section at the end of the bill was removed, which is typical when a bill moves to reprint status and the statement may be revised or consolidated.

Multiple instances of 'this act' were replaced with placeholder language 'P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill)' in preparation for final chapter numbering. Minor grammar corrections were made throughout Section 2 (e.g., 'household incomes,' 'delivery year,' 'which supports').