Sierra Club: Governor Murphy Needs to Do More for Clean Energy

Trenton, NJ. –  Today, the state Board of Public Utilities released New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan (EMP). The EMP contains admirable goals to electrify vehicles and advance Governor Murphy’s offshore wind targets.  However, the EMP falls short on numerous aspects, and needs to do more to maximize the benefits of 100% clean energy in the face of the climate crisis.

First, the EMP fails to establish a moratorium on new dirty fossil fuel projects while there are currently 15 proposed in New Jersey. Second, the plan continues to include dirty, dangerous, and costly sources of energy like incinerators, carbon sequestration for fossil fuels, biogas, biomass, and nuclear. The plan is flawed as it continues New Jersey’s reliance on nuclear through 2050, well beyond the life of the plants. The EMP also fails to recommend lifting unnecessary limits on solar power which threatens progress toward 100% clean energy.

The EMP does not plan for reducing climate pollution fast enough to avoid the worst impacts of climate pollution, missing the authoritative climate goals set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of at least a 45% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2030. It also fails to reach the long term goal adopted by the Governors of New York and Massachusetts of eliminating net climate pollution by 2050.

The EMP is a living document which means that the administration can make updates and changes. The EMP needs to be amended to evaluate climate change impacts on New Jersey at a 20-year horizon instead of its current 100-year horizon. The EMP should include stronger transit goals instead of spending $500 million to replace aging trains with dirty buses and diesel trains. We should be moving forward on electrifying our transit systems. Finally, the plan needs to end our reliance on climate-warming fossil fuels and include a moratorium on new dirty fossil fuel projects.

In response, Director of New Jersey Sierra Club Jeff Tittel released the following statement:

“While the EMP includes important goals for electrifying vehicles and expanding offshore wind, Governor Murphy needs to establish a moratorium on new dirty fossil fuel projects, electrify mass transit,  and reduce climate pollution faster to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. New Jersey can create new jobs, grow our economy, and save lives by taking the dire threat of the climate crisis seriously.”