Green Jersey

Environment N.J. won’t endorse a candidate

The group Environment New Jersey announced yesterday it would not announce a candidate for governor. In a press conference at the Statehouse, the group instead called on Chris Christie, Jon Corzine and Chris Daggett to focus more on the environment in their campaigns and released a list of their “top 10″ environmental actions the next governor should take, including save Barnegat Bay, push wind and solar power and cut energy usage statewide.

“Between now and election day, rather than devote ourselves to one candidate, Environment New Jersey will work to ensure the candidates are talking to voters about these environmental problems and explaining what they’d do to solve them,” said executive director Dena Mottola Jaborska.

In not endorsing anyone, the group moves in a different direction than the New Jersey Sierra Club, which this week announced its support for Daggett.

Environment New Jersey said it would host three town hall meetings, inviting Corzine, Christie and Daggett to attend, and is helping to plan an environment-focused debate among the candidates that is scheduled for October.

Below, the group’s full top 10:

1)      Save the Barnegat Bay – Coordinate land use and planning through the establishment of a Barnegat Planning Commission, set strict numerical limits for phosphorus and nitrogen in all waterways within the watershed and the Bay, require low nitrate fertilizer in the watershed, and require Exelon to install a closed loop cooling system on Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant to put an end to massive fish kills in the Bay.

2)      Build Green Jobs, Go Big on Wind and Solar - Drive the growth of renewable energy development in the state by setting a stronger renewable energy standard of 40% by 2025. To reach the increase, adopt policies that help New Jersey reach more of its wind and solar potential without further delay. Policies should include: building at least three wind farms off New Jersey ’s coast in the next two years (at least 1000 MW of energy), expanding the project to generate at least 3000 MW of wind-generated energy by 2020, and adopting community solar legislation that would drive the development of large solar projects in communities across the state.  The next Governor must also extend the state’s current revenue source for clean energy and protect the funding from raids.

3)      Preserve New Jersey ’s Open Space – Renew New Jersey ’s commitment to open space preservation and parks by doubling the available funding for parks and open space. Establish a permanent, stable source of funding to achieve this vision. Strengthen regulations to limit development on open space and drive development to areas in need of redevelopment. Reverse all tax breaks and permit extensions that were adopted by Gov. Corzine and the legislature and that aid growth in environmentally sensitive areas.  

4)      No More Imported Coal Power –At least two major power lines have been proposed by utility companies that want to pipe more dirty coal-generated power into New Jersey from Pennsylvania , Ohio , Maryland and West Virginia . The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has the power to reject these lines, and establish policies that would block future proposals. One of these lines, the proposed Susquehanna–Roseland power line, would cut through some of New Jersey ’s most beautiful and pristine natural areas in the Highlands . It would carry coal-generated energy from Pennsylvania to the lucrative energy market of New York City . New Jersey can meet its energy needs with home grown wind and solar, and an aggressive deployment of energy efficiency and energy conservation steps. More power from more coal in Pennsylvania will lead to more air pollution in the state, as New Jersey is directly downwind.

5)      Defend New Jersey ’s Waterways – Almost 40 years since Congress enacted the Clean Water Act, the quality of New Jersey ’s waterways continues to decline. No other state has more declining waterways than New Jersey , and development around waterways is the leading threat to the state’s water quality. New Jersey must immediately strengthen the application and enforcement of its Category One protection program, which allows the state to keep development 300 feet away from waterways. New Jersey must also strengthen and enforce standards on phosphorus, the number one cause of water impairment and pollution in the state.

6)      Solve Global Warming with Energy Saving Buildings – Cutting our state’s energy usage is the quickest and cheapest way to reduce global warming pollution, shore up the reliability of our electricity grid, and stabilize energy rates for all New Jersey residents and businesses. New Jersey must adopt policies to fulfill its full energy savings potential and achieve a 30% cut in energy demand by 2020. One large step toward achieving these cuts is making all buildings in the state more energy efficient. New Jersey must ensure all existing buildings are retrofitted for efficient energy use and all new buildings are constructed to achieve at least 30% more energy savings than those constructed today.

7)      Clean Up Toxics in Our Communities – New Jersey has over 20,000 toxic sites, including 115 Superfund sites, 38 of which have been on the Superfund list for more than 20 years. New legislation enacted last spring put the cleanup of a large portion of New Jersey ’s 20,000 toxic sites in the hands of private environmental consultants. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) must establish a High Priority List of the sites that pose the greatest risks to public health, and those sites must be urgently cleaned up. The NJDEP must manage the cleanup of these high priority sites in-house, adhering to state clean up standards which are designed to minimize risks to human health and wildlife.  Corporations responsible for these toxic sites must be held liable for cleanup costs and degradation of the environment. An audit of the cleanups overseen by private consultants must be conducted to determine how well sites are being cleaned up. 

      Promote Clean Cars for a Healthy Future –Consumers in New Jersey are purchasing fuel efficient cars with low global warming and smog emissions in record numbers. New Jersey can drive clean car technology even further by paving the way for the next wave of clean cars: plug–in gas / electric hybrids and all-electric vehicles (that can go 100 miles without recharging).  The state should offer a sales tax exemption to consumers purchasing vehicles that use alternative technology and get better than 75 mpg. The state can also help New Jerseyans transition to clean cars by partnering with the private sector to build plug-in stations and car battery switching stations along major New Jersey highways, ensuring clean cars are both practical and affordable for all New Jerseyans.

9)      Support American Clean Energy and Security Act  (ACES) –  While New Jersey has a strong renewable energy standard and has set strict limits on global warming pollution through our state’s adoption of the Global Warming Response Act, many states across the nation have not taken action to solve global warming and foster renewable energy development. It is in New Jersey ’s strong self interest to have national legislation that brings the rest of the nation along as we build a clean energy future. This June, the U.S. House of Representations passed the ACES Act, which would set a strong national renewable energy standard of 20% by 2020, cap global warming emissions by 83% by 2050 and require all new buildings to be net zero (produce all the energy it uses) by 2030. New Jersey leaders, including the Governor must be outspoken advocates of this national legislation as it awaits action in the U.S. Senate.

10)  Stop the Coal Plant in Linden – Massachusetts SCS Energy wants to build a 500 MW coal power plant in Linden , N.J. (PurGen One) on Grasselli Point in Linden , along the Arthur Kill waterway. North Jersey is already overburdened with air pollution from nearby power plants and industrial facilities. Local air pollution grossly exceeds federal standards for smog, soot, and health-based goals for cancer risk. The plant would gasify coal and burn the gas, but it’s anything but clean.  The plant would be more polluting than a combined cycle natural gas plant, and add 7.5 million pounds (3775 tons) of air pollution to Union County each year, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (smog / ozone), sulfuric acid mist (SOx) and soot (fine and ultrafine particles). The company is selling this project as a solution to global warming. But carbon sequestration is costly ($1 billion for this project), potentially dangerous and could give new life to coal-generated energy. Sequestration burdens future generations with buried CO2 pollution that would be better avoided through renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation.