It will take a decade to rebuild the Jersey Shore, and when it is done its economy may be different and there may be a much smaller population, according to a disaster expert who oversaw the recovery of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

In the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy, some policymakers and legislators say the state needs to create a smarter power grid, making the system more resilient and quicker to recover from major storms.

When Jersey Central Power & Light filed a rate increase request late Friday, it was modest by utility standards. It seeks only a $31.5 million increase, a proposal that would boost monthly bills for most residents by 1.4 percent.

As state officials began a series of hearings to map out how New Jersey plans to rebuild the coast, which is the heart of a $38 billion tourism industry, more questions than answers were raised as a Senate committee began exploring how best to recover from the storm. It could be a long time before any consensus is reached.

Hurricane Sandy has prompted utility regulators to take a new look at measures New Jersey has shied away from in the past – including replacing some above-ground power lines with underground systems -- largely because of the huge price tag that likely would jack up electric rates for consumers.

The worst storm ever to hit New Jersey has caused enormous headaches for its two biggest electric utilities, as well as millions of their customers, but will not result in lower credit ratings, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Even before Hurricane Sandy slammed into the state, New Jersey faced mind-boggling upgrade costs to modernize its aging infrastructure: from drinking water facilities, to mass transit, to structurally deficient bridges — among other pressing projects.

When the state’s utilities are finished restoring power to millions of customers in the wake of Sandy, the final bill will be passed on to ratepayers, who already face more than a quarter of billion dollars in increases from last year's two powerful storms.

With predictions of a potentially catastrophic storm hitting New Jersey, many residents probably will spend lot of time without any power this week.

Few dispute the notion that New Jersey needs to expand efforts to usher in a new era of cleaner vehicles, a step advocates say will improve air quality and potentially create tens of thousands of well-paying, green jobs.

In a step angering officials in New Jersey and Maryland, the regional operator of the nation’s largest power grid is moving to adopt rules that the states say will make it tougher for them to subsidize the new power plants needed to increase reliability and lower costs for consumers.

New Jersey’s solar industry is at a crossroads, a somewhat surprising development given its wildly successful record in the past decade.

For years, the state’s Environmental Infrastructure Trust has earned widespread praise for helping local governments clean up New Jersey’s waterways by issuing low-interest loans to upgrade wastewater treatment plants, not to mention creating a huge amount of jobs in the process.

The New Jersey Supreme Court yesterday ruled that the state must demonstrate a cause-and-effect connection before it holds a suspected polluter responsible for contaminating groundwater or other natural resources, even if a hazardous discharge has occurred.

The developer of the state’s first offshore wind farm is telling regulatory officials that the project's impact on ratepayers will be significantly lower than a similarly scaled initiative in Rhode Island, which is likely to be the first operating wind farm off the East Coast.

New Jersey has one of the most ambitious clean energy programs in the nation, but some have criticized the state for not doing enough to promote the development of electric vehicles and other alternative-fueled cars.

Warning that extreme weather is here to stay, state regulatory officials yesterday began weighing steps that New Jersey electric utilities should take to improve response times when restoring power to customers.

The Christie administration’s draft strategic investment plan is touted by officials as a blueprint for spurring economic development in New Jersey, a goal seemingly embraced by many.

The state’s four electric utilities would face stiffer penalties if they fail to quickly implement restoration plans in the event of severe storms, according to a recommendation introduced by the Christie administration. The governor wants the Legislature to move rapidly on the proposal, enacting it into law this fall.