New Jersey is under the gun to
make good on a commitment made to the nine other states in the region to
implement the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). But a draft of
legislation to implement NJ’s participation in the regional greenhouse gas cap
and trade program looks more like an early Christmas present to the state’s
electric utilities and generating companies than a thoughtful solution to
global warming.
“Christmas
is coming early this year for the state’s power generators and utilities. The
RGGI bill, in its current form, has been artfully crafted to drastically weaken
the RGGI program in New Jersey
while still maintaining the appearance of participation. If New Jersey
moves forward with this toothless version of RGGI, it won’t be part of the
global warming solution. New
Jersey will be a spoiler while the rest of the
Northeast leads the way in tackling global warming,” said Dena Mottola
Jaborska, executive director of Environment New Jersey.
The
bill protects fossil fuel-fired power plants by artificially ‘capping’ the
price that polluters will have to pay for their emissions, effectively
undermining the market structure that is central to the cap and trade
model. In addition, the bill fails to
designate all generated revenue to energy efficiency measures. Full investment in energy efficiency is the
only way to both significantly reduce electricity rates and further cut global
warming emissions.
“This
bill in its current form will do nothing to limit dirty coal’s attack on NJ’s
environment and the health of its citizens. This bill is more about supporting
special interests than the public interest and more about subsidies for
utilities than environmental protection,” said Jeff Tittel, director of the New
Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Nearly
all other states in the region have moved forward and adopted the program in a
straightforward manner. They have
followed the regional pact closely and committed to investments in energy
efficiency to offset any rate impact. New
Jersey stands to be the first state to divert from
the agreement and fail to maximize the greenhouse gas reduction potential of
RGGI.
“Now
more than ever, we need real leadership in Trenton,”
said David Pringle, campaign director of the New Jersey Environmental
Federation. “The time is up on global
warming. We need our elected officials
to make good on their promise to tackle this problem without sweetheart deals
for the fossil fuel electric utilities.”
