Reverse global warming
Global warming is packing a mean punch for New Jersey, especially our future generations. If we don’t act to reverse global warming, sea levels could rise two to four feet in the next century, submerging all our beaches and causing chronic flooding of many coastal treasures. MORE >

Environment New Jersey supports legislation that:
• Sets an economy-wide cap on all global warming pollution emitted in the state (the Global Warming Response Act: A3301 / S2114).
• Establishes significant incentives to purchase fuel-efficient vehicles and strong disincentives to buy gas guzzlers.
• Sets a minimum standard to encourage energy-saving tires that save gas by reducing rolling resistance.
• Gives New Jersey consumers the option to purchase pay-as-you-go auto insurance to create an incentive to drive less.
• Sets pollution limits on energy sources that import energy into New Jersey from out of state.

Environment New Jersey calls on the Corzine administration to:
• Implement Executive Order 54, which directs state agencies to devise a plan to cut state global warming emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. Publicly endorse and help to pass A3301 to set an economy-wide cap on all global warming sources.
• Adopt state policy to prohibit the construction of new coal plants in the state.
• Properly implement the regional cap and trade program to reduce power plant pollution (the Regional Green house Gas Initiative) by charging generators for all pollution credits and investing that income into energysaving programs that drive down energy rates.

Save our open space
Outdoor recreation and green spaces are a critical part of life in New Jersey. To the tune of 50 acres a day, New Jersey is losing the green places in our communities that provide wildlife habitat, stop run-off pollution, and put the Garden in Garden State. Rutgers University predicts that the state will reach full “build-out”—the day we’ll run out of land—in 30 years. MORE >

Environment New Jersey supports legislation that:
• Renews funding for the Garden State Preservation Trust Fund, creating a stable source of funding for land acquisition as well as park maintenance, development and operations. To adequately address these funding needs, we should designate $225 million a year for acquisition, $100 million a year for capital projects, and $56 million a year for operations.
• Repeals the developers’ fast track law, which expedites building permits (S711 / A2240).

Environment New Jersey calls on the Corzine administration to:
• Adopt new regulations to protect critical wildlife habitat from development of some of New Jersey’s most environmentally sensitive land.

Build a new energy future
How we use and produce energy affects our economy, our environment, our health and our pocketbooks. Increasing energy efficiency and shifting to clean, renewable energy are energy solutions that put consumers ahead of big energy companies, cut our dependence on dirty fossil fuels, and improve public health. MORE >

Environment New Jersey supports legislation that:
• Requires developers to offer solar energy systems as an option for all new homes.
• Renews and increases funding for the state’s energy efficiency and renewable energy programs through a modest charge on electricity bills.
• Sets minimum energy efficiency standards for all new homes and commercial buildings constructed in the state (A3595 / S 2154).
• Sets minimum energy efficiency standards for 14 common household and commercial products and gives the the state’s energy agency the authority to set standards for additional products in the future.

Environment New Jersey calls on the Corzine administration to:
• Ensure the New Jersey Energy Master Plan maximizes all energy efficiency and renewable energy options and phases out the dirtiest and most dangerous sources of energy.
• Move forward with the research, assessment and construction of a 350 MW wind farm off the coast of New Jersey.
• Adopt an Executive Order that makes New Jersey a national leader for adherence to energy efficiency and other green building practices in its state government buildings.

Protect our water resources
Every waterway in New Jersey should be fishable and swimmable, and everyone should have access to a clean source of drinking water. We need to protect our coastal waters, rivers, lakes, estuaries and wetlands both for ourselves and for future generations. MORE >

Environment New Jersey calls on the Corzine administration to:
• Adopt regulations to expand vegetative buffers to 300 feet around highvalue waterways such as the Toms River, Cedar Creek, and the Ramapo, Musconetcong and Walkill Rivers.
• Strengthen clean water regulations governing the amount of pollution that sewer and septic systems can dump into New Jersey’s rivers, lakes, streams and underground aquifers.
• Adopt the proposed waterway regulations that set vegetative buffers around all waterways statewide to help prevent flooding and protect waterways from runoff pollution.
• Strengthen the water permit for Oyster Creek nuclear power plant to require a closed loop cooling system that would protect the marine life that depends on Oyster Creek and nearby Barnegat Bay.