N.J. to counter global warning
By Todd B. Bates (Gannet New Jersey), CourierPostOnline.Com, December 28, 2008
Imagine a "zero-waste" Garden State, widespread use of electric or hydrogen fuel cell cars and green buildings that conserve energy and water.
That's one vision for the future to 2050 in a draft state report released recently.
The plan will cost billions of dollars to implement and details on funding sources are lacking, but it can result in thousands of jobs and save money down the road, advocates said.
"There are very aggressive goals in the plan, and it's only going to get done if the governor expends political capital," said David Pringle, campaign director for the New Jersey Environmental Federation. "The plan itself is less important than the actual implementation."
"It's just a hot-air report" if it isn't fulfilled, said Jeff Tittel, director of the Sierra Club's New Jersey chapter.
State officials will be "fleshing out" 40 recommendations in the draft with stakeholders and looking at their costs, said Jeanne Herb, director of policy, planning and science in the Department of Environmental Protection.
The draft Global Warming Response Act Recommendation Report outlines steps for New Jersey to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent below 2006 levels by 2050. Six stakeholder meetings to gather comments are scheduled next month.
"There is broad scientific consensus that human-caused greenhouse gas . . . emissions" are impacting the Earth's climate, and Northeast states are "particularly vulnerable to the impacts of global warming, with potentially devastating ecological, economic and public health impacts to New Jersey," the report says.
Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas that keeps heat from escaping into space, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site.
And a major concern in New Jersey is sea level rise because of global warming, the draft state report says.
"The state is especially vulnerable to significant impacts" because of land subsidence, the topography of its coastline, coastal erosion and very dense coastal development, the report says.
"Aggressive and immediate action is needed to stabilize and then reduce" greenhouse gas concentrations to avoid the most serious impacts from climate change, the report says.
Implementing the state's new Energy Master Plan, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative of 10 states to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants and the state's low emission vehicle program puts New Jersey on track to meet the 2020 limit, according to a state Web site.
A Rutgers University analysis determined that those three efforts would have a negligible impact on the state's economy, said Marjorie Kaplan, manager of the DEP's new Office of Climate and Energy.
The report also outlines 40 other recommendations for meeting the 2020 limit and provides a framework for attaining the 2050 limit, according to Herb and the state Web site. Among the recommendations for 2050:
90 percent of development in New Jersey will be in areas with existing public infrastructure and 99 percent of that development will be redevelopment.
All New Jersey residents will have alternative ways to get to work beyond single-occupancy vehicles.
Produce zero waste by 2050. That means all products and packaging entering the municipal solid waste stream must either be fully biodegradable, refillable or reusable a minimum number of times and then recyclable in an economically sustainable manner.
According to the plan, New Jersey Transit will commit $29.7 billion to keep the transit system in a state of good repair, build the proposed Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel (a rail tunnel) and complete other projects that could grow ridership over time.
"The plan is the nation's strongest and most comprehensive plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions," said Matt Elliott, global warming and clean energy advocate for Environment New Jersey, in a statement.
"It lays a path for the governor and the Legislature to dramatically increase energy efficiency and renewable energy in our buildings, cars and transportation systems and to drastically reduce global warming pollution," he said.
The plan recognizes that New Jersey's sprawling land-use patterns have been a major factor in the growth of transportation-related emissions, according to a statement from Peter Kasabach, executive director of New Jersey Future, a smart growth research and policy group.
But it "comes up empty on action steps, counting far too heavily on new technology, such as hybrid cars and low-carbon fuels, to reduce the state's carbon footprint," Kasabach said.
The report, however, is "really limited" to focusing on the 2020 recommendations but went beyond that time frame, Herb said. A detailed report focusing on 2050 is due in 2010.
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