DEP Response: “It depends on what the definition of “shall” is”
PSEG coal plant, Duck Island – on Delaware River just south of TrentonGreenhouse Gas Reduction Plan Due This Week Delayed Until Fall or Later
Trenton — The Corzine Administration has failed to meet its first major statutory milestone in implementing the emission reduction goals of the highly touted Global Warming Response Act, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). A June 30th legal deadline for producing a plan identifying the legislative and regulatory “measures necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” will not be met until September at the earliest.
The Global Warming Response Act was signed by Gov. Jon Corzine last July, on the eve of a concert at the Meadowlands attended by former Vice President Al Gore. The Act mandates a 20% reduction in current greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020 and an 80% reduction by 2050. Environmentalists have praised the goals of the New Jersey law as among the strongest in the nation.
Since then, Gov. Corzine has participated in a series of high profile global warming events, including a trip to Portugal to sign an international declaration and, this past April, an appearance at Yale University to sign the Governors’ Declaration on Climate Change partnership.
At a meeting this week with New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Lisa P. Jackson, we were informed that the June 30th deadline was not close to being met and that the new estimated goal for circulating a draft greenhouse gas control plan for public review is mid-to-late August. A minimum 30 day comment period would push delivery of a plan to the Legislature back until September or early October.
“The concern is that when it comes to global warming the Corzine administration may be all hat and no cattle,” stated New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe. “At a time when scientists are calling for quicker and deeper emissions reductions, the sense of urgency among our state officials has vanished.”
Salem nuclear plant – Corzine energy plan is rumored to call for a controversial new nuclear plant.There may be further delays, however, due to other actions by the Corzine administration. DEP may not be in a position to implement any ambitious greenhouse gas control plans since the Governor’s budget slashes agency funding, imposes a hiring freeze, and relies on an early retirement program that could cost DEP more than 300 positions (out of a 3,200 total workforce). These cuts, which are far deeper than those imposed during the Whitman administration, will hamstring detailed planning for, let alone implementing, any bold new initiatives at DEP.
PSEG Bergen plant – a contovesial deal to export all power produced by this plant to NY City was recently killed.At the same time, Gov. Corzine is poised to sign “The Permit Extension Act” which would exempt thousands of projects from any new energy conservation, energy efficiency, building codes, or other requirements to install solar heating or other renewable energy that may ultimately be required by the Global Warming Response Act. PEER has asked the Governor to veto the bill.
“Since there will not likely be coherent federal action for at least two years, people who are counting on the states to take effective steps on global warming now should be disappointed in New Jersey,” Wolfe added. “Stumbling this badly coming out of the blocks does not bode well for how we will run the race.”
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Read the Global Warming Response Act (GWRA)
http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2006/Bills/PL07/112_.PDF
Look at Gov. Corzine’s GWRA signing statement
http://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/approved/20070706.html
View the Governor’s Yale conference statement
http://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/2008/approved/20080417b.html
Read the PEER veto request on the Permit Extension Act
http://www.peer.org/docs/nj/08_2_7_permit_extension_veto_request.pdf
[Closing note to the spin wizards in the DEP Press Office who called the June 30 deadline a “target” – here’s what the GWRA mandates – Just what don’t you understand about the word “shall? “How long will reporters keep misreporting your spin as fact?]:
“6. a. The department, …shall evaluate policies and measures that will enable the State to achieve the 2020 limit, shall make specific recommendations on how to achieve the emission reduction targets, including measures that reduce emissions in all sectors of the economy including transportation,housing, and consumer products, and shall evaluate the economic benefits and costs of implementing these recommendations. The department shall coordinate its evaluation of greenhouse gas emission reduction policies and measures with the work of the Energy Master Plan Committee established pursuant to section 12 of P.L.1977, c.146 (C.52:27F-14).
b. No later than June 30, 2008, the department, and any other State agencies, as appropriate, shall prepare a report recommending the measures necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve the 2020 limit. The report shall include specific recommendations for legislative and regulatory action that will be necessary to achieve the 2020 limit. The report shall be transmitted to the Governor, to the State Treasurer, to the Legislature pursuant to section 2 of P.L.1991, c.164 (C.52:14-19.1) and to the members of the Senate Environment Committee and the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee.”
New Jersey PEER is a state chapter of a national alliance of state and federal agency resource professionals working to ensure environmental ethics and government accountability
With the European Community suing it’s own members to force them to de-industrialize, and Corzine forcing industry out of Jersey, we are guaranteed a miserable lifestyle with no good jobs.
Obviously, they’ll re-locate to Red china, Mexico, India etc. and we’ll just get the pollution a few weeks after it’s produced in one of those red clouds or in the water we gag on from the New World Order’s relocation of wealth from us to “them”.
A bucolic picture of unemployed millions in the former greatest nation on earth doesn’t re-assure me.
And what are we, and Al Gore, going to do about that global warming detected on the planet Jupiter and attributed to sunspots?
blarneyboy – Germany created more than 170,000 well paying manufacturing jobs in one sector of the solar industry.
There are thousands of good new jobs to be created in transition to low energy economy
What has NJ done? Diddly squat. Due in large part by the ignorance you reveal.
China is one of the most capitalistic countries on earth.
blarneyboy – you confuse trade policies – which caused the export of US manufacturing jobs – with environmental policy.
Are you a corporate flack?
If not, join me in opposition to WTO, IMF, World Bank policies known as the “Washington Consensus”.
Join in opposition to GATT, NAFTA and trade policies.
readers – I just deleted my first comment, a censorious practice I abhor.
But, in this case, it was warranted.
ggibsco – please don’t bother bringing your trash here
I agrre, heartily, with you on NAFTA, GATT, the IMF etc., but wonder how long those solar panel jobs will last before their being made in India, cheaper.
We can’t look at environmental policy without co-ordinating it with economic/ trade policy.
Overall, we’re on the same proverbial page and I applaud your intellectual honest.
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