Energy Overview, Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy Costs, Creating Green Jobs, Ensuring Adequate Energy Supply, Revamp the Board of Public Utilities

Energy Overview

For far too long, New Jersey has been saddled with some of the highest energy bills in the country, which has made businesses less competitive and left homeowners struggling to balance their budgets. However, after several years of deliberation, a rare consensus has been achieved among policymakers, environmental advocates and industry officials on a new Energy Master Plan that will show New Jersey how to forge a more rational energy policy for the 21st Century.. But we must move beyond setting goals and focus instead on effective implementation.

Continue reading indepth ENERGY OVERVIEW

PROBLEM: Reliance on fossil fuels keeps us at risk economically and environmentally. We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
SOLUTION: Develop a coordinated and comprehensive approach to reducing energy consumption and developing alternative energy sources for the home, schools and businesses in order to meet the 2020 goals for greenhouse gas reduction. Make New Jersey the leader in electric cars. New Jersey should not build new power plants that perpetuate our reliance on fossil fuels, such as the proposed liquefied natural gas islands off the New Jersey shore and the proposed new coal plant in Linden.

Continue reading REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

PROBLEM: New Jersey consumers pay some of the highest prices for electricity in the nation.
SOLUTION: Control rising utility bills by meeting peak demand in a way that does not drive up consumer costs.

Continue reading indepth on ENERGY COSTS

PROBLEM: The revolution in green technology is well underway and New Jersey is not well positioned enough to lead the nation in research, development and manufacturing.
SOLUTION: Establish a national leadership role for New Jersey in research, development and manufacturing of these and other green technologies. Promote tax incentive policies that expand the use of offshore wind, solar, electric cars and other alternative technologies. Train the workforce needed to compete for jobs in the new “green economy.”

Continue reading indepth on CREATING GREEN JOBS

PROBLEM: New Jersey energy supplies are not adequately developed to address rising demand.
SOLUTION: Ensure that New Jersey’s energy supplies are adequate to meet demand.

Continue reading indepth on ENSURING ADEQUATE ENERGY SUPPLY

PROBLEM: The Board of Public Utilities does not respond quickly enough to changing energy challenges.
SOLUTION: Revamp and professionalize the Board of Public Utilities, cut the number of commissioners from five to three, and streamline the BPU’s regulatory processes.

Continue reading indepth on REVAMPING THE BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES

Energy Overview

The highest priority must be to sharply reduce energy consumption, because it is the only way New Jersey is ever going to achieve its aggressive target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2020. Equally important, the state needs to take a more assertive role in developing the new cleaner sources of energy to fight climate change and to increase our energy independence.

To achieve those twin goals, the state must respond more effectively to those innovative businesses which take advantage of the opportunities posed by the shift to the green economy. New Jersey must increase its investment in alternative technologies and remove unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles impeding their development. Too often in the past, New Jersey has lost out to neighboring states because its regulatory agencies were far less nimble than counterparts in nearby jurisdictions.

In the long run, technological advances, such as the ability to store energy generated by offshore wind or solar power, will be critical to making solar and wind not only more reliable, but also more competitive, and, eventually cheaper than conventional power sources. It will require smart investment of limited resources in our higher education institutions as well as close collaboration with industry leaders to develop and train the workforce ready to compete in a green economy.

New Jersey must take the lead in working with other Northeast states to develop the infrastructure and improved technology to make electric cars the modern equivalent of Henry Ford’s Model T. With its dense population and compact area, the region would be the ideal place to pioneer this effort, just as the Southwest is ideal for solar energy and the Plains states for wind.

In achieving these aims, the state must closely monitor developments in the marketplace. As we have witnessed with the recent move to a market-based solar power program in New Jersey, the transition to a new green economy will not be an entirely smooth ride. As in other times in our history, the shift to a new and more efficient way of doing things does not occur cheaply or without significant investment. In the short term, there may be some added costs to consumers, but in the long run, the green economy will deliver not only a cleaner and healthier environment, but a more cost-effective energy policy.

If New Jersey is going to get serious about dealing with global warming, we need to shift our focus away from reliance on fossil fuels that contribute to climate change and focus our energy on developing cleaner forms of energy and ways to reduce energy consumption. That focus argues against approval of three proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals off the Jersey Shore and a proposed clean coal plant in Linden because they would increase greenhouse emissions and, in the case of the LNG terminals, increase our dependence on foreign fossil fuels.

Energy Overview, Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy Costs, Creating Green Jobs, Ensuring Adequate Energy Supply, Revamp the Board of Public Utilities

Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Twenty years ago, while Chris Daggett was serving as Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, New Jersey was the first state in the nation to warn of the dangers of global warming and direct state agencies to address the problem.

To meet the 2020 goals for greenhouse gas reduction, New Jersey first and foremost needs to develop a coordinated and comprehensive approach to reducing energy consumption in the home, schools and businesses. This will require an educational effort that stresses both the environmental and cost benefits of energy conservation in the same way as earlier educational efforts promoted the virtues of recycling. We need to turn off lights, turn the thermostat lower in the winter and higher in the summer, and use more energy-efficient appliances.

As the most densely populated state in the nation, New Jersey should not only continue to expand mass transit, but also seek to become the national leader in the development of the market and infrastructure for electric cars. New Jersey’s most famous resident, Thomas Edison, was the foremost proponent of the electric car, and our greenhouse gas problem would be much less severe today had Edison’s friend, Henry Ford, heeded his advice.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions means we will have to be more aggressive in developing solar and offshore wind power to replace the traditional fossil-fueled plants increasing the state’s carbon footprint. More than 85 percent of New Jersey’s greenhouse gas emissions are due to combustion of fossil fuels for energy, and New Jersey has established very aggressive goals to reduce greenhouse gas emission levels, including setting a target of 80 percent reduction by 2050.

In that regard, it makes no sense for the state to approve the three proposed liquefied natural gas plants off the New Jersey coast or the proposed new coal plant in Linden. All three LNG projects would involve tapping natural gas resources from overseas, requiring supplies to be shipped long distances to their proposed offshore sites. Furthermore, the glut of natural gas supplies in storage domestically raises serious doubts about the economic viability of the offshore projects unless they are used to export our abundant natural gas supplies. However, such use of the project was not contemplated when it was first proposed and would run counter to our national energy interests. Meanwhile, the proposed $5 billion, 750-megawatt power plant proposes to capture and bury millions of tons of carbon dioxide beneath the Atlantic Ocean floor over 100 miles offshore, even though PSE&G’s two existing coal-fired plants sat unused all summer because their capacity was not needed.

Energy Overview, Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy Costs, Creating Green Jobs, Ensuring Adequate Energy Supply, Revamp the Board of Public Utilities

Energy Costs

Under the new deregulated energy economy, the only new plants which have been proposed, by and large, are so-called peaking units, which only run at times of peak demand and tend to drive up electric bills for consumers. As Governor, I will work to make sure that the new power supplies needed to meet rising demand help stabilize costs, not take a bigger chunk out of consumers’ wallets.

In the long term, technological advances, such as the ability to store energy generated by offshore wind or solar power, will be critical to controlling energy costs. By making New Jersey the Silicon Valley of the new “Green Economy,” we can help usher in the technological advantages to avert big spikes in bills.

Energy Overview, Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy Costs, Creating Green Jobs, Ensuring Adequate Energy Supply, Revamp the Board of Public Utilities

Creating Green Jobs

New Jersey should build upon the legacy of Edison and Einstein and our leadership in pharmaceutical and telecommunications to strive to become the Silicon Valley of the new “Green Economy.” That means investing in the research and development capacity of our colleges and universities, and providing incentives for alternative energy programs.

We are centrally located to serve as the headquarters and hub for the offshore wind industry that will spring up along the Atlantic coast from Maine to North Carolina over the next decade, and our population density and commuter traffic patterns make us the logical state to pioneer the infrastructure for electric cars.
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Working with the state’s education establishment, labor and utilities, we must begin a collaborative effort to ensure we have the workforce we need to compete in a green economy. That means providing skilled workers with a solid educational background to lure businesses to New Jersey for the growth promised by a green economy, much as the experienced and talented personnel here helped make the state the center of the nation’s telecommunications and pharmaceutical industries in the last century.

Energy Overview, Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy Costs, Creating Green Jobs, Ensuring Adequate Energy Supply, Revamp the Board of Public Utilities

Ensuring Adequate Energy Supply

Modern electronic devices are used more than ever before, including air conditioners, plasma televisions, computers, and other electric powered consumer products. We need to ensure that we have adequate supplies of energy to meet demand.

Energy Overview, Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy Costs, Creating Green Jobs, Ensuring Adequate Energy Supply, Revamp the Board of Public Utilities

Revamp the Board of Public Utilities

The state Board of Public Utilities should be revamped and professionalized, and the number of commissioners should be reduced from five to three.

The BPU’s permitting and regulatory processes should be reexamined by a broad-based group representing all stakeholders, from utilities and businesses to environmentalists and consumers, to agree on how to streamline and professionalize its processes. This review process should follow the model set last year by the Department of Environmental Protection Permit Efficiency Task Force. Chris Daggett chaired the panel and brought together a wide range of business, environmental and government leaders to agree unanimously on ways to cut red tape and permit delays without sacrificing environmental protection.

Energy Overview, Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Energy Costs, Creating Green Jobs, Ensuring Adequate Energy Supply, Revamp the Board of Public Utilities