The Legislature finds and determines that the well-being of the people of New Jersey, and of their institutions, including government, is directly related to the well-being of New Jersey’s business and industrial enterprises, including the housing industry and small business enterprises, which provide the economic base of employment and taxes upon which all other institutions of society depend.

The Legislature further finds and determines that a secure, stable and adequate supply of energy at reasonable prices is vital to the State‘s economy and for the promotion of economic opportunity in the State, as well as for ensuring the public health, safety and welfare. The Legislature further finds that reducing energy costs is essential to reducing the costs of doing business in this State, which in turn will promote and maximize economic growth, speed business development, promote employment and ensure general prosperity in the State.

The Legislature further finds and determines that the principal methods for achieving the goals of this act include: the widespread use of alternative energy sources, including electric cogeneration of energy, with independent power producers selling excess power to utilities; the fullest possible cost-effective implementation of energy conservation programs; and the introduction of market-based pricing principles and competition in the setting of rates for electricity, natural gas and other energy forms.

The Legislature further finds that the original mission of a separate Department of Energy–to address and solve the problems caused by threatened catastrophic loss of near-and-long-term energy sources–no longer justifies retaining a separate Department of Energy as a principal department within the Executive Branch. The Legislature further finds that it is in the best interests of the citizens of this State that a single principal department within the Executive Branch of this State coordinate the promotion of the State’s economy and serve as a focus for business and industrial concerns, promote the availability of energy at reasonable prices to all consumers and integrate the State’s economic, business and energy policies and programs to retain and to enhance this State’s economic health and to ensure that the State’s economy remains competitive. The Legislature further finds and determines that an important method to achieve these goals is to promote and assist the development and utilization of cogeneration of energy and programs of energy conservation.

The Legislature further finds and determines that New Jersey’s economy has deteriorated in recent years from its one-time position of national prominence and leadership in many fields of business and industry, a trend particularly evident in the almost continuous decline of manufacturing employment over a span of a decade or more, a fact which has had significant and deleterious effects upon the economy of the State, impacting adversely upon a broad cross-section of New Jersey’s citizenry.

The Legislature further finds and determines that the variety and magnitude of New Jersey’s economic development programs have now reached a level that warrants their consolidation into a separate cabinet-level administrative department devoted exclusively to monitoring the interests and concerns of business and industry, maintaining continuous liaison with the business community and its leadership for the purpose of assisting in the formulation and direction of economic policy so as to provide business and industry the optimum climate within which enterprises may grow and prosper to the benefit of society as a whole. The Legislature also finds that the variety and complexity of programs which serve to protect the occupational health and safety of workers at the work place, to provide skill development and training programs, to provide employability development and employment placement programs, to administer the programs designed to protect the income security of our workers, to assist in the development and preservation of sound labor management relations and to maintain continuing liaison with organized labor and its leadership for the purpose of assisting in the formulation and direction of policy so as to provide the optimum climate within which organized labor can serve the needs of New Jersey’s working men and women, warrants a cabinet level department devoted exclusively to this purpose which shall be known as the Department of Labor.

The Legislature, therefore, declares it to be in the best interest of the citizens of this State to establish a principal department within the Executive Branch to serve as a focus for business and industrial problems and concerns; as a center for gathering and disseminating appropriate data and information of significance to the business community; to continually analyze such data and to help formulate economic policies of the State on the basis thereof; to serve as a major focal point for economic development activities in cooperation with other entities, public and private, active in this field; to serve as a voice for and advocate of the interests of the business sector, not only within the highest councils of the Executive Branch but also before the Legislature and the general public; to assist in translating input it receives into programs and policies of the State itself to the end that New Jersey citizens shall enjoy optimum economic security and the highest possible standard of living; to assist in coordinating authority, regulation and planning by the State in matters related to the economy.

L. 1981,c.122,s.2; amended 1987,c.365,s.1.