NEW JERSEY RESOURCES MARKS EARTH DAY BY ANNOUNCING PROGRESS ON GOAL TO REDUCE EMISSIONS BY 20 PERCENT

WALL, N.J. – Five years after committing to reduce and offset its greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020, New Jersey Resources (NJR) today commemorated Earth Day by announcing it has already met this goal for most parts of its business, including reductions in its fleet, pipeline, building and travel footprints.

“When we first committed to reducing our emissions in 2007, it was an attempt to do our part to protect and improve the quality of life for future generations,” said Laurence M. Downes, chairman and CEO of New Jersey Resources.  “I am pleased to report that we have matched our vision with results and am enormously proud of the serious, sustained, companywide efforts of all our employees that have led us to achieve this early milestone.”

Over the past five years, NJR has targeted all aspects of its carbon footprint.  The company’s first step was to conduct a baseline assessment of its total emissions.  NJR completed this assessment and found that its annual emissions totaled 17,474 tons of greenhouse gases, not inclusive of fugitive emissions that are the subject of a new reporting requirement by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, which will become effective fall 2012. This, however, has not prevented NJR’s chief subsidiary, New Jersey Natural Gas (NJNG), from reducing its emissions along the pipeline by 32.8 percent. This is largely due to major improvements at NJNG’s Jamesburg station, where heaters are required to keep natural gas flowing through the pipeline.  For 2011, by comparison, the same calculation shows emissions of 13,884 tons or a reduction of 20.5 percent from its baseline measurement.

In addition to its pipeline energy reductions, NJR achieved airline and train travel emission reductions of 28.5 percent and fleet emission reductions of 18.8 percent.  As NJR has retired older vehicles, it has replaced them with higher-efficiency models. Based on a five-year rotation, the company expects to achieve a 20 percent reduction each year through vehicle replacements.  However, last year alone NJR achieved a total estimated reduction of 33 percent due to higher-than-expected new vehicle efficiency.  Other fleet reductions have included the use of biodiesel fuel, which results in a 13 percent reduction in emissions for applicable vehicles, and the assignment of job-appropriate hybrid vehicles to employees. In the coming months, we anticipate expanding the use of natural gas vehicles following the recent completion of compressed natural gas stations at both its Wall and Lakewood facilities.

As part of its building emission reductions, NJR retrofitted the lighting in most of its buildings, and installed occupancy sensors in its Wall, Lakewood and Rockaway facilities.  At company’s Wall headquarters, NJR upgraded its HVAC system and installed an energy management system to achieve 20 percent energy savings.  It partially de-lamped some of its hallways, where lighting levels exceeded those recommended by the Illuminating Engineer Society, and installed timers to either turn off unnecessary lighting or use daylight harvesting, which turns lights on only when natural light from the sun is not sufficient.  NJR also virtualized its information technology server that reduced the number of physical servers from 60 to 9, thus requiring less power and cooling.

“By bringing a consistent focus to these numbers over the past five years, our experience has clearly demonstrated to our customers that everyday actions can lead to real savings and make a meaningful difference,” said Downes.

About New Jersey Resources

New Jersey Resources, a Fortune 1000 company, provides safe and reliable natural gas andrenewable energy services, including transportation, distribution and asset management in states from the Gulf Coast to the New England regions, including the Mid-Continent region, the West Coast and Canada, while investing in and maintaining an extensive infrastructure to support future growth. With $3 billion in annual revenues, NJR safely and reliably operates and maintains 6,800 miles of natural gas transportation and distribution infrastructure to serve nearly half a million customers; develops and manages a diverse portfolio of 3.2 Bcf/day of firm transportation and over 62 Bcf of firm storage capacity; offers low carbon, clean energy  solutions through its commercial and residential solar programs and provides appliance installation, repair and contract service to nearly 130,000 homes and businesses. Additionally, NJR holds investments in midstream assets through equity partnerships including Steckman Ridge and Iroquois. Through Conserve to Preserve®, NJR is helping customers save energy and money by promoting conservation and encouraging efficiency. For more information about NJR, visit www.njresources.com, “Like” us at facebook.com/NewJerseyNaturalGas or follow us on Twitter @NJNaturalGas.