New Jersey governor signs toughest U.S. carbon law

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Reuters) -- New Jersey on Friday became the first U.S. state to mandate sharp greenhouse gas reductions by 2050 in an effort to fight climate change.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, signed a law on Friday making the state the latest to bypass the Bush administration by setting mandatory regulations to fight emissions of gases scientists link to global warming.

"We want to send a message to Washington. Wake up, get with the program and start doing something about greenhouse gases," Corzine told reporters at Giants Stadium on the eve of former Vice President Al Gore's international Live Earth concerts.

The Global Warming Response Act mandates economywide cuts of greenhouse gas emissions by about 16 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050 in the country's most densely populated state.

Scientists say heat-trapping emissions need to be cut by that much to prevent the worst effects of global warming including deadly storms, flooding and droughts.

U.S. states have taken action on their own and in regional groups because the federal government has not yet passed mandatory regulations on the emissions.

The U.S. Congress is mulling several bills that would cut output of the gases by employing market mechanisms to trade the right to pollute. But whether a bill will pass before Bush leaves office in 2009 is a matter of keen debate.

California -- the world's eighth largest economy -- recently enacted a tough greenhouse gas law. Like New Jersey's, it also mandates an emissions cut by 2020. But its long term goal of cutting emissions 80 percent by 2050 is a target, not a hard mandate. Environmentalists said the New Jersey law is tougher than California's because its 2050 target is enforceable.

Gore, who also spoke to reporters about the New Jersey law, said he would talk about it in future presentations of his slide show about global warming.

New Jersey, which has a hub of oil refineries and chemical plants in its northern region, aims to fight emissions by promoting renewable energy like solar and wind power and by helping consumers to conserve power.

Public Service Enterprise Group, owner of New Jersey's largest utility, said the law would lead to higher power prices.

"It won't be cost effective. Customers will need to pay more," the company's Chief Executive Ralph Izzo told Reuters at the ceremony where Corzine sighed the bill.

The New Jersey Business and Industry Association opposes the law, saying it would raise fees and give sweeping powers to state agencies.

The law also seeks to deal with emissions from vehicles, the largest source of the emissions in New Jersey, by enhancing public transportation, car-pooling and the shipping of goods by rail instead of truck.

But even environmentalists said the effort will be a tough fight as renewable energy currently only provides a tiny portion of the state's power.

"We need to be careful of congratulating ourselves on this legislation because the hard work is yet to be done," said Doug O'Malley, the field director for Environment New Jersey, a green group that helped form the law.

http://www.environmentnewjersey.org/legislature/testimony/global-warming/global-warming/global-warming-response-act-a3301/s2114
Global Warming Response Act (A3301/S2114)

Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee

Testimony before the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee

Urging Support for the Global Warming Response Act (A3301/S2114)

Suzanne Leta Liou, Global Warming and Clean Energy Advocate

February 20, 2007

Excerpt:

New Jersey’s passage of this legislation will make us the second state in the nation to pass a comprehensive solution to global warming. In light of that, I would like to talk briefly about how New Jersey’s current policies make our state incredibly well-positioned to meet the goal of this bill and ensure that we receive the immense benefits from being at the vanguard of global warming solutions.

Excerpt:

Half of our pollution, 52 percent, comes from transportation, primarily cars and trucks. 16 percent of our pollution comes from in-state power plants that generate electricity. We also import 20 to 30 percent of our total electricity use from out of state, including dirty coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania. 21 percent of our pollution comes from residential and commercial use, primarily heating, and another 11 percent of our pollution comes from industrial facilities.

Excerpt: NOTE - Cody

First, thanks in large part to Governor Codey, we are part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an agreement between 10 Northeastern states establishing a cap-and-trade program to reduce global warming pollution from power plants. Under this program, New Jersey will reduce global warming pollution from power plants by 10 percent below 2009 levels by 2019, a real contribution toward the goals of the legislation before you today.

Excerpt:

Our second building block is energy efficiency. Efficiency programs include energy audits, incentives to purchase energy efficient appliances and financial assistance to retrofit power plants to be more efficient.

Excerpt:

The third building block is one of the best Clean Energy Standards in the nation. This standard requires that 20 percent of the electricity used in New Jersey comes from clean, renewable sources like wind and solar, and has created a burgeoning solar industry.

Excerpt: NOTE - Car feebate and Transit Villages

Our fourth and final building block is the Clean Cars Program. The program, passed by the legislature in 2004, requires an increasing percentage of zero-emissions and low-emissions vehicles to be sold in New Jersey.

(snip)

One way to do that is to establish a statewide cost-neutral “feebate” program to help drive the rapidly growing market for fuel efficient cars. (There are already 13 hybrid gas-electric vehicles on the market, including 5 SUVs and one pick up truck. Another 9 hybrids are expected to come on the market within the next 2 years and another 16 models are in the works.) This “feebate” program would charge disincentives, or fees, to purchasers of the worst gas guzzlers and use the money generated from those fees to provide incentives, or rebates, to purchasers of the most fuel efficient vehicles. Another option for New Jersey is to ensure existing car-owners have the option of purchasing low rolling resistance tires that improve fuel efficiency.

We can also take big steps to ensure we stabilize the amount of driving in our state. After all, nearly 75 percent of New Jerseyans drive to work alone. We can tackle this by providing incentives for ride reduction programs such as carpooling, shuttle service to transit stations and telecommuting and offering pay-as-you-drive auto insurance. We can also change development patterns to focus on transit villages and ensure mass transit is affordable and accessible.

(snip)

>>>>Venture capitalists are chomping at the bit for these solutions because they understand that a high price for carbon is coming and they need to stay ahead of the curve. <<<

IOW, we must line the pockets of the investors. More than likely, these are the Goldman Sachs businesses coming in that Coleus posted here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1861913/posts?page=30#30

Page was here: http://njpirg.org/NJ.asp?id2=4140&id3=NJ&;

It is now offline, so I’m copying the cache:

Cleaner Cars, Cleaner Air

Victory! The NJ Clean Cars Act Crosses The Finish Line: Landmark Bill Will Clean Up Air Pollution From The Number One Source 1/13/04

Cars Create Most Air Toxics In New Jersey
Every New Jersey resident has seen and breathed in car exhaust. This exhaust doesn’t just smell bad and look ugly, it is a very serious threat to our health. In fact, it’s the part that you can’t see that is the most dangerous—toxic chemicals like benzene and formaldehyde make up a large percentage of auto-exhaust.

Automobiles are responsible for over 80 percent of the airborne carcinogens in New Jersey. As a result, the EPA estimates that the average New Jersey resident breathes air that violates safety guidelines by 1,600 times. We all want healthier air. Now it’s time for the auto manufacturers to start using up-to-date, widely available clean car technology and provide New Jersey residents with cleaner automobiles so we can have cleaner air.

New Jersey’s Citizens Want Healthy Air
Air pollution from automobiles makes summertime hazardous to many New Jersey residents. Unhealthy levels of ozone smog make it dangerous to breathe on one out of three summer days in New Jersey. This smog sends over 6,000 New Jerseyans to the emergency room every year.

For New Jersey’s more than 100,000 asthmatic children, it can turn especially dangerous, triggering asthma attacks—the number one reason why kids miss school in New Jersey. New Jerseyans don’t want pollution from cars threatening our health. In fact, according to a recent poll, 73 percent of the public is strongly in favor of cleaner cars.

The Time To Act Is Now
We want car makers to invest in our health by putting clean technology in all our favorite cars, so we can drive cleaner. If our state passes the Clean Cars Act, we could cut over 500,000 lbs. of air pollution by 2025—the equivalent of taking half a million cars off New Jersey’s roads.

The Clean Cars Act, or Low Emission Vehicle II Standards program, has been passed in New York, Massachusetts, California, Vermont and Maine. In these states, residents breathe cleaner air because new cars there emit dramatically less pollution. And in New York, manufacturers are opening up factories to build cars that pollute less.

Many of the nation’s largest car makers have the technology to run cars on alternative fuels and build cleaner gas-powered cars. Passing the Clean Cars Act will bring these cars to New Jersey.

Car Makers Need A Push
Efficient cars are on the road today only because California passed the Clean Cars Act. As a result, its residents have access to cars that run up to 150,000 miles between tune-ups and produce little or no air pollution.

We can start to solve our air pollution problem by demanding that auto makers, who have fought this change, make those same cars available in our state. And where New Jersey leads, other states will follow.

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