NJ Gov. Phil Murphy
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP Governor Phil Murphy Monday, Jan. 27 unveiled the state's Energy Master Plan, which outlines key strategies to reach the administration's goal of 100% clean energy by 2050.
To underpin the initiatives in the Energy Master Plan, Murphy today signed Executive Order No. 100, directing the Department of Environmental Protection to make sweeping regulatory reforms, branded as Protecting Against Climate Threats or PACT, to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. With this executive action, New Jersey is the first state in the nation to pursue such a comprehensive and aggressive suite of climate change regulations.
New Jersey faces an imminent threat from climate change, from rising seas that threaten our coastline to high asthma rates in some of our most vulnerable communities due to fossil fuel pollution, Murphy said. Successfully implementing the strategies outlined in the Energy Master Plan will drastically reduce New Jersey's demand for fossil fuels, reduce our carbon emissions, greatly improve local air quality, and related health impacts. The Energy Master Plan, together with PACT, the most sweeping set of climate regulations in the country, represents a seismic shift in our energy policy. In the absence of climate change leadership in Washington, these reforms will help propel New Jersey to 100 percent clean energy by 2050. Through these aggressive actions, New Jersey will drive a world-leading innovation economy that invests in people and communities, ensures environmental justice for all residents, creates good-paying jobs, protects diverse vulnerable ecosystems, improves public health, and leads the way in the global clean-energy transition.
The Energy Master Plan comprehensively addresses New Jersey's energy system, including electricity generation, transportation, and buildings, and their associated greenhouse gas emissions and related air pollutants. The Energy Master Plan defines 100% clean energy by 2050 as 100% carbon-neutral electricity generation and maximum electrification of the transportation and building sectors, which are the greatest carbon emission producing sectors in the state, to meet or exceed the GWRA mandates. The Energy Master Plan is the first of a series of monumental steps to ensure that New Jersey generates, uses, and manages its energy supply in a way that is consistent with economic, climate, and societal demands. The Energy Master Plan outlines the following seven key strategies and includes an implementation plan that lays out next steps and timelines:
Strategy 1: Reducing energy consumption and emissions from the transportation sector, including encouraging electric vehicle adoption, electrifying transportation systems, and leveraging technology to reduce emissions and miles traveled.
Strategy 2: Accelerating deployment of renewable energy and distributed energy resources by developing offshore wind, community solar, a successor solar incentive program, solar thermal, and energy storage. It also involves adopting new market structures to embrace clean energy development and contain costs, opening electric distribution companies' circuits for distributed energy resources, and developing low-cost loans or financing.
Strategy 3: Maximizing energy efficiency and conservation and reducing peak demand including enacting 0.75% and 2% utility energy efficiency standards for natural gas and electricity, respectively, improving energy efficiency programs in New Jersey, adopting new clean energy and energy efficiency financing mechanisms, and strengthening building and energy codes and appliance standards.
Strategy 4: Reducing energy consumption and emissions from the building sector through decarbonization and electrification of new and existing buildings, including the expansion of statewide net zero carbon homes incentive programs, the development of EV-ready and demand response-ready building codes, and the establishment of a long-term building decarbonization roadmap.
Strategy 5: Decarbonizing and modernizing New Jersey's energy system through planning and establishment of integrated distribution plans, investing in grid technology to enable increased communication, sophisticated rate design, and reducing our reliance on natural gas.
Strategy 6: Supporting community energy planning and action in underserved communities through incentivizing local, clean power generation, prioritizing clean transportation options in these communities, and supporting municipalities in establishing community energy plans.
Strategy 7: Expand the clean energy innovation economy by expanding upon New Jersey's existing 52,000 clean energy jobs and investing in developing clean energy knowledge, services, and products that can be exported to other regions around the country and around the world, thereby driving investments and growing jobs. New Jersey will attract supply chain businesses to create dynamic new clean energy industry clusters and bring cutting-edge clean energy research and development the state.
Executive Order No. 100 directs the DEP to adopt, within two years, regulatory reforms to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. Known as PACT, the sweeping suite of climate change regulations include:
To implement the executive order, DEP Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe issued Administrative Order 2020-01 detailing the PACT reforms and setting deadlines for DEP to adopt these progressive climate rules within the next two years, and sooner in many instances.
The threats to our state and economy from climate change demand bold action, and with Gov. Murphy's leadership, DEP is proposing the most progressive shift in New Jersey's environmental regulations in more than a decade, McCabe said. In the absence of true federal leadership on climate change, New Jersey is taking the lead with one of the most comprehensive climate regulatory reform efforts in the country. This reform, PACT, is a pact with the residents of New Jersey to protect our property, infrastructure and quality of life by making climate resilience a primary consideration for DEP permits and approvals. It is also a pact across generations to reduce emissions that fuel climate damage so that our children and grandchildren may too thrive and enjoy our great state.
Gov. Phil Murphy, the greenest governor in the country, is putting New Jersey at the forefront of climate action by requiring developers to consider the environmental impact before they build, said Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters. This unprecedented, first of its kind action is sending a clear and hopeful message to the people of New Jersey that despite the lack of leadership in Washington, our state is committed to protecting our families, public health, and economy from the impacts of climate change.
To view the Energy Master Plan, click here.
To view Executive Order No. 100, click here.
To view DEP Administrative Order 2020-01, click here.
To view a summary on the Energy Master Plan and the Executive Order, click here.
