Toward a Clean Energy Future

Over the past decade, New Jersey has taken important steps on the road to a clean energy future, from launching an energy efficiency program to reducing vehicle pollution through a clean cars program. In 2007, state leaders passed the Global Warming Response Act, requiring the state to rapidly and substantially reduce emissions of global warming pollution. The state then mapped out a path toward achieving these ambitious goals in the 2008 Energy Master Plan, building on the success of its innovative clean energy programs. These initiatives are now delivering results – conserving energy, reducing our contribution to global warming, protecting our air and water quality and improving public health.

However, at the beginning of the new decade, the state of New Jersey’s commitment to a clean energy future is less certain. Dirty energy companies are once again lining up at New Jersey’s doorstep. One company is working to build a new coal-fired power plant in Linden, and utility companies are working intently to build several new power lines to bring more coal energy to New Jersey from Pennsylvania and the Midwest.

Newly elected Governor Chris Christie faces a choice: follow through on building a 21st century clean energy future for New Jersey, or slide back into the dirty energy patterns of the past. By embracing the state’s existing clean energy goals – and by enacting real, concrete policies to make those goals reality – Governor Christie can help the state do its part to stop the worst impacts of global warming and ensure a reliable, affordable electricity supply.

New Jersey is reducing electricity consumption and peak demand for power through successful energy efficiency programs.

• In 2008, New Jerseyans reduced statewide electricity consumption by 4 percent compared to the peak reached in 2007. Electricity consumption in 2009 is likely to be down another 4 percent.
• Peak demand for electricity has generally been declining since 2006. In 2009, peak demand was 1,800 megawatts (MW) (or 9 percent) below levels predicted the year before.
• The recession is responsible for much of the reduced need for electric power in 2009. However, New Jersey’s ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs are also playing an important role in this transition. Active since 2001, these programs are now saving on the order of 400 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity per year and reducing peak demand by a total of about 740 MW – reducing the state’s electricity consumption and peak demand by about 0.5 percent per year. That amount of electricity is equivalent to the annual needs of about 46,000 New Jersey households, or half the residences in a city the size of Jersey City.
• If New Jersey expands its commitment to energy efficiency, the state can ensure that electricity consumption and peak demand continue to decline, even as the economy recovers from recession and grows. Building on progress achieved to date, the state can meet the goals of the Energy Master Plan, reducing electricity consumption by at least 20 percent below “business as usual” levels by 2020, and reducing peak demand for electricity by 5,700 MW by 2020 – eliminating the need to build dozens of power plants and new power lines.

New Jersey is using an increasing amount of electricity generated from clean, renewable sources of power. The state also plans to increase the amount of renewable electricity generated in-state by building offshore wind farms and installing thousands of solar panels.

• In 2009, New Jersey obtained about 7 percent of its electricity supply from renewable energy sources to comply with the state’s renewable electricity standard. The Energy Master Plan calls for New Jersey to obtain 30 percent of its electricity from clean, renewable sources by 2020, powering more than 1 million New Jersey homes with wind, solar and other clean technologies. To achieve this goal, New Jersey will have to raise its renewable electricity standard.
• Less than 1 percent of New Jersey’s electricity is generated from in-state renewable resources. To increase the use of local resources and enhance local economic benefits, the Energy Master Plan envisions the construction of 3,000 MW of offshore wind turbines by 2020 – enough to supply about 15 percent of the state’s electricity needs. As of the end of 2009, three companies are pursuing wind farms off the coast of Cape May and Atlantic Counties. The first turbines could be operational as soon as 2013 or 2014.
• Another promising source of renewable power local to New Jersey is the sun. By including a requirement for solar power within its existing renewable electricity standard, New Jersey has launched one of the most active solar markets in America. The state now has more solar panels per square mile than any other state. In January 2010, the state legislature acted to build on this progress, requiring the state to generate more than 2,100 GWh from solar power by 2020 (or close to 3 percent of the state’s electricity needs) – and more than double that amount by 2026. To date, New Jersey’s clean energy programs have helped to install more than 100 MW of solar capacity, putting the state about one-tenth of the way to the 2020 target.

If the state follows through on the 2008 Energy Master Plan, importing dirty power or building new expensive and polluting coal-fired or nuclear power plants will be unnecessary.

• Although the state has made progress toward achieving the goals laid out in the Energy Master Plan, much more remains to be done over the next decade.
• By achieving the Energy Master Plan goals, New Jersey could deliver a reliable supply of electricity at an affordable price, while helping the state do its part to address global warming. The benefits of a renewed commitment to clean energy include:

• Reducing annual global warming pollution from the electric sector almost 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 – even if the state retires Salem nuclear reactors I and II at the end of their operating licenses this decade.
• Saving New Jersey consumers a net of nearly $17 billion through energy efficiency improvements – with benefits exceeding costs by 260 percent.
• Reducing the emission of health-threatening air pollution, both from in-state and out-of state fossil fuel-fired power plants.
• Increasing fuel diversity and insulating consumers from spikes in the price of fossil fuels.
• Creating jobs that can’t be outsourced and boosting economic activity around the manufacture and installation of energy efficient equipment, solar panels and offshore wind farms.

Governor Christie should re-affirm New Jersey’s commitment to a clean energy future by embracing the goals of the Energy Master Plan and enacting concrete policies to realize those goals.

• New Jersey should expand and accelerate its energy efficiency programs. New Jersey is achieving roughly one third of the energy savings delivered by efficiency programs in leading states such as Vermont and Connecticut. The state should take action to capture more of its vast energy efficiency potential by requiring utilities to capture all cost-effective energy efficiency resources before investing in new supply and meeting specific targets for reducing electricity consumption and peak demand. Additionally, the state should set new building energy codes, adopt energy efficiency standards for appliances like flat screen televisions, and lay out a plan to ensure all new buildings achieve net-zero carbon emissions by no later than 2030, and ideally as soon as 2020.
• New Jersey should increase its commitment to clean, renewable electricity. The state should increase its renewable electricity standard to require 30 percent of the state’s electricity consumption to come from clean, renewable sources of energy by 2020. Half of the standard could be achieved with local resources by ensuring the successful deployment of 3,000 MW of wind farms off the New Jersey coast. The Christie administration should work to establish a financing mechanism for offshore wind and facilitate a robust, environmentally responsible, and efficient permitting process. Additionally, the state should build on its momentum in the solar market and foster the introduction of emerging renewable energy technologies, such as ocean and geothermal power.
• New Jersey should limit dirty power imports. New Jersey should ensure that any new power lines deliver clean, renewable electricity to the state, rather than facilitate the transmission of polluting coal-fired power. A generation performance standard requiring all new power sources to meet or exceed the emissions performance of a combined cycle natural gas plant would achieve this goal. Alternatively, the state could work with other Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative states to regulate emissions from imported electricity.