Governor Christie’s State of the State Solar Claims Are Ludicrous

Christie Called Corzine 30% Renewable Energy Goal a “Pie in the sky sop”

Christie Used Energy Master Plan To Rollback Renewable Goal from 30% to the 22.5% Statutory Minimum

Solar installed capacity was growing, but Gov. Christie almost killed solar industry – (Source:NJ Senate Environment Committee hearing transcript, 7/10/14

[Update Below]

Governor Christie’s State of the State Address failed to mention the environment, but he did brag about NJ’s solar power progress:

We have assets that many other states just cannot match. […]

New Jersey has so many attractions.

We are America’s number two state in biotechnology …

Number four in per capita income …

Number three in the use of solar power …

That is an outrageously misleading claim.

The facts are that Gov. Christie had nothing to do with NJ’s solar achievements (installed capacity – see above) and his policy and Energy Master Plan almost killed the solar industry in NJ.

This is a complex story, but I’ll try to make it simple.

The biggest State incentive and policy driver of the renewable energy industry is the “Renewable Portfolio Standard” (RPS) which requires that electric utilities buy a specific amount of renewable energy.

The RPS is set by the legislature in statute and can be increased by the Governor on a policy basis via the BPU Energy Master Plan (EMP).

The policy wonks can compare the Corzine 30% RPS in the Corzine 2008 EMP with the Christie 22.5% RPS in the Christie EMP – But no need to read the whole thing – right on page 1, the Christie EMP says:

Maintain support for the renewable energy portfolio standard of 22.5% of energy from renewable sources by 2021

The word “maintain” is a flat out lie – Christie reduced the Corzine EMP renewable goal from 30% to 22.5 %.

But let’s make it even simpler than that.

Aside from the fact that Gov. Christie has denied climate change, defunded and disbanded NJ’s climate programs, ignored the NJ Global Warming Response Act, withdrew NJ from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, effectively killed offshore wind development, stolen over $1 billion from the Clean Energy Fund, and rejected a Sierra Club petition to ramp up energy efficiency programs , specifically, as I wrote at the time, Gov. Christie  called his predecessor, Gov. Corzine’s 30% renewable energy goal a “pie in the sky sop”

The statutory minimum RPS was 22.5 %, but Gov. Corzine’s Energy Master Plan increased that on a policy basis to 30%.

Gov. Christie revised the Corzine Energy Master Plan and reduced that 30% RPS it back to the statutory minimum of 22.5%

At the time, Christie himself called 30% renewable goal a “pie in the sky sop” *(that’s a direct quote).

The Philadelphia Inquirer also reported that quote:

At the news conference, the governor pledged his support to developing renewable energy, but said the administration wanted to decrease the percentage of renewable sources in its portfolio to 22.5 percent because the 30 percent required under Corzine was not achievable.

He called it a “pie-in-the-sky” sop to special interests with no way to be achieved

Christie’s legal Counsel to the BPU also testified to the legislature that:

the level of subsidies to solar is too high

So Gov. Christie is shameless in touting NJ’s solar achievements – he had nothing to do with it and he opposed it and almost killed the solar industry.

National media needs to get these facts.

[Update: 1/14/15 – NJ Spotlight “fact checked” the speech (see this). I was very disappointed that they took such a very narrow view and merely nitpicked on the ranking claim. So I fired off this comment about “truthiness” and classical propaganda (which, as Orwell wrote, always has elements of truth thrown in to spin the lie):

Facts can be selected and assembled to support falsehoods. That’s called propaganda.

A narrow focus on accuracy or validity of individual facts can not get to the truth or meaning of the totality of a statement.

With that in mind, I was disappointed by the analysis here of Gov. Christie’s solar claims.

First of all, Christie did nothing to contribute to that success (regardless of ranking).

Second, his energy and BPU/economic regulatory policy almost destroyed the solar industry in NJ.

Third, he called Gov. Corzine’s 30% renewable energy goal a “pie in the sky sop”.

Fourth, Christie used his Energy Master Plan to roll back Corzine’s 30% goal to the statutory minimum of 22.5$.

Fifth, installed capacity is way down compared to the rate it was growing when he took over.

So, with those “facts” and context in mind, the Gov. claim was ludicrous.