52:27F-3. Definitions

As used in this act:

a. "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of the Department of Energy;

b. "Department" means the Department of Energy established by this act;

c. "Distributor" means and includes each person, wherever resident or located, who imports into this State fuels for use, distribution, storage, or sale in this State after the same shall reach this State; and also each person who produces, refines, manufactures, blends, or compounds fuels and sells, uses, stores, or distributes the same within this State. In no case, however, shall a retail dealer be construed to be a distributor;

d. "Energy" means all power derived from, or generated by, any natural or man-made agent, including, but not limited to, petroleum products, gases, solar radiation, atomic fission or fusion, mineral formations, thermal gradients, wind, or water.

e. "Energy facility" means any plant or operation which produces, converts, distributes or stores energy or converts one form of energy to another; in no case, however, shall an operation conducted by a person acting only as a retail dealer be construed as an energy facility;

f. "Energy information" means any statistic, datum, fact, or item of knowledge and all combinations thereof relating to energy;

g. "Energy information system" means the composite of energy information collected by the office;

h. "Energy industry" means any person, company, corporation, business, institution, establishment or other organization of any nature engaged in the exploration, extraction, transportation, transmission, refining, processing, generation, distribution, sale or storage of energy;

i. "Fuel" means coal, petroleum products, gases and nuclear fuel, including enriched uranium, U235 and U238, and plutonium, U239;

j. "Gases" means natural gas, methane, liquefied natural gas, synthetic natural gas, coal gas and other manufactured gases;

k. "Person" means natural persons, partnerships, firms, associations, joint stock companies, syndicates and corporations, and any receiver, trustee, conservator or other officer appointed pursuant to law or by any court, State or Federal; "person" also means the State of New Jersey, counties, municipalities, authorities, other political subdivisions, and all departments and agencies within the aforementioned governmental entities;

l . "Petroleum products" means and includes motor gasoline, middle distillate oils, residual fuel oils, aviation fuel, propane, butane, natural gasoline, naphtha, gas oils, lubricating oils and any other similar or dissimilar liquid hydrocarbons;

m. "Public building" means any building, structure, facility or complex used by the general public, including, but not limited to, theaters, concert halls, auditoriums, museums, schools, libraries, recreation facilities, public transportation terminals and stations, factories, office buildings, business establishments, passenger vehicle service stations, shopping centers, hotels or motels and public eating places, owned by any State, county or municipal government agency or instrumentality or any private individual, partnership, association or corporation;

n. "Purchase" means and includes, in addition to its ordinary meaning, any acquisition of ownership or possession, including, but not limited to, condemnation by eminent domain proceedings;

o . "Retail dealer" means any person who engages in the business of selling fuels from a fixed location such as a service station, filling station, store, or garage directly to the ultimate users of said fuel;

p. "Sale" means and includes, in addition to its ordinary meaning, any exchange, gift, theft, or other disposition. In such case where fuels are exchanged, given, stolen, or otherwise disposed of, they shall be deemed to have been sold;

q. "Supplier of fuel" means any refiner, importer, marketer, jobber, distributor, terminal operator, firm, corporation, wholesaler, broker, cooperative or other person who supplies, sells, consigns, transfers, or otherwise furnishes fuel. In no case, however, shall a retail dealer be construed to be a supplier of fuel;

r. "Trade secret" means the whole or any portion or phase of any scientific, technical or otherwise proprietary information, design, process, procedure, formula or improvement which is used in one's business and is secret and of value; and a trade secret shall be presumed to be secret when the owner takes measures to prevent it from becoming available to persons other than those selected by the owner to have access thereto for limited purposes;

s. "Wholesale dealer" means any person who engages in the business of selling fuels to other persons who resell the said fuel. In no case shall a retail dealer be considered as a wholesale dealer.

t. "Cogeneration" means the simultaneous production in one facility of electric power and other useful forms of energy such as heating or process steam.

L.1977, c.146, s.3, eff. July 11, 1977. Amended by L.1978, c.80, s.1, eff. July 13, 1978.