Green Jersey

Informed public fuels Westfield energy forum

The 100 or so people who gathered at the Westfield Library last night to hear New Jersey’s gubernatorial candidates talk about energy issues got something they might not have expected: A civil conversation among three men who, when they didn’t know something, said so, in an environment in which the public asked informed questions and no rocks were lobbed.

What they did not get was all three candidates — only Independent Chris Daggett showed up to the town hall-style event, sponsored by Environment New Jersey, the New Jersey Highlands Coalition, Clean Ocean Action and the Alternative Press. (”I seem to be the only candidate in a lot of places these days,” Daggett, still far behind in the polls but the New Jersey Sierra Club’s chosen candidate, said in his opening remarks.)

But the governor sent a well-informed Assemblyman John McKeon to talk on his behalf; Christie sent Rick Dovey, president of the Atlantic County Utilities Authority, who was well versed in many of the issues in his own right but said he had not spent much time discussing them with Christie.

Dovey did vouch for Christie, saying at the start of the event: “On this topic, renewable energy, energy efficiency and the future of our energy and how it relates to the future of our environment in New Jersey, I think Chris Christie is on board… there really isn’t, I didn’t sense, a Republican view here.” Still, he didn’t shed much light on Christie’s positions on many of the issues that were raised.

On some of the biggest environmental issues facing the state, there was punting by all or most of the group: The Susquehanna-Roseland power line project, an offshore Liquefied Natural Gas facility, the creation of a coal-powered plant in Linden whose carbon pollution would be captured and stored off the coast, under the ocean.

Julia Somers of the New Jersey Highlands Coalition brought up the power line expansion, which her group opposes for environmental reasons, and asked the men whether they would oppose it if it is approved by the Board of Public Utilities (which it may be by the end of the year).

Dovey said that he understood the project overall, but not the specifics, and said it would be something Christie would study carefully. “I don’t want to say I’m dead set against it or for it,” said Daggett, who said he didn’t have all the details either; at one point he seemed frustrated with the governor’s race, saying it has not allowed him time to study some issues in-depth.

McKeon gave the most full answer, saying the Corzine administration believed the added power was needed, and mentioning PSE&G’s ownership of the right-of-way and agreement to pay the Highlands Council $20 million to preserve additional lands. “I think the governor’s thoughts, by not vetoing [Highlands Council meeting minutes], are self-evident.”

John Weber of the Surfrider Foundation brought up his group’s concerns over a proposed Liquefied Natural Gas facility off the Jersey coast.

“I don’t think that the governor would absolutely close the door,” McKeon said, again citing a need for additional energy. But while there is a practical component to an offshore LNG facility, he said, there are “many in the Legislature and good citizens like you that would have a lot to say before that actually came to fruition.”

“While I’ve always said I will hear all sides of an issue, and I will, before I come down finally and firmly, but I’ll tell you everything I’ve seen so far would tell me I couldn’t support that,” said Daggett.

Maplewood’s mayor, Fred Profeta, asked how the men would address Corzine’s goal of having 30 percent of the state’s energy generated from renewable sources by 2020 (New Jersey is at around 3 percent now).

McKeon said good progress was made over Corzine’s term and called the financial incentives available for solar and wind significant. Still, “We have a long way to get there,” he said, without really going into detail.

“It’s not going as fast as we would like and it’s probably going to continue that way, unfortunately,” Daggett said next. “Specifically, we need to do things to improve the bureaucratic process by which these approvals go through.” He added: “The whole goal is not to step back one bit from environmental protection and the aggressive stand we’ve taken in New Jersey over the years, but we can sure deliver the goods a lot more efficiently and effectively than we have to date.”

The event ended abruptly when the library needed to be closed for the night. Kaitlyn Millsaps, campaign coordinator for the Highlands Coalition, said afterward that she was disappointed Daggett and the two reps didn’t know more about some of the issues that were brought up, especially since the election is close at hand.

The issues “are so important to us, and they just kind of breezed over all of them, saying they would have to learn more about them in the future,” she said.

But Matt Elliott of Environment New Jersey said the two-hour event, the first of a series for a group that chose not to endorse a candidate, was a success.

“The goal of the event tonight was really to get the candidates for governor to start talking about energy issues and to really address the ways that they will solve New Jersey’s energy problems, to move New Jersey toward a cleaner energy future,” Elliott said. “We think it was a good start.”