Drafting New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan
Will the governor stand strong on energy policy?
This
fall, Gov. Jon Corzine geared up to release a draft of his Energy
Master Plan for the state of New Jersey. The plan should lay the
groundwork for what it will take to power the state for the next 15
years.
With your help, Environment New Jersey has celebrated a
number of clean energy victories over the past few years, with New
Jersey leading the nation by pushing the development of renewable
energy and promoting energy conservation to curb global warming
emissions.
Once finalized, the details of the governor’s plan
will either make good on these commitments and forge a visionary new
energy path for New Jersey, or it will fall short, by caving in to the
utilities, and upholding the status quo of dirty, dangerous energy. And
with your help, Environment New Jersey will continue to advocate
innovative technologies that conserve energy and generate clean,
renewable power.
New power plants?
In October, the Star
Ledger confirmed that the state’s utilities were influencing the Energy
Master Plan and revealed that a draft of the plan included support for
building two new power plants.
Our research shows that we don’t
need to build new power plants to meet our energy needs. With proper
planning and strong, visionary leadership, we can meet all of our clean
energy and emissions reduction goals by investing in conservation and
renewable energy. Many of these strategies also create more jobs than
big central power plants, cut electricity costs and pollution, and
support innovation and technological development.
Our new energy future
We
made it clear that we were not willing to compromise on our energy
future, and worked to build broad public support for a platform that
called on Gov. Corzine to reduce energy consumption 10 percent,
generate 25 percent of the state’s electricity from renewable sources
by 2025, phase out old, outdated power plants, and reject utilities’
plans to build new nuclear plants in New Jersey.
“We know the
public is behind us, clamoring for new energy solutions. We will
continue to lead the way, calling on Gov. Corzine to adopt a strong
energy policy,” said Matt Elliott, our global warming and clean energy
advocate.
Wind turbines in Atlantic City show New Jersey’s clean energy potential.
