The state needs to do a lot more and act much quicker to avert the worst impacts of climate change, lawmakers were warned Thursday as they began assessing what new steps must be taken to speed up reductions in pollution from greenhouse-gas emissions.
“There is too much at risk to not push further and do more,’’ Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette told the Senate Environment and Energy Committee. “We are not ready. Ida showed us that.’’
LaTourette and Board of Public Utilities President Joseph Fiordaliso outlined actions the state has taken to combat climate change, the extent of damages New Jersey already has incurred because of global warming, and what else needs to be done.
Their appearance before legislators comes at a time when there are signs the Murphy administration’s ambitious goal to transition to 100% clean energy by mid-century is beginning to encounter stronger opposition from business and other interests, who worry about the cost of phasing out fossil fuels and the reliability of new power sources.
Working with Murphy administration
Thursday’s hearing is the first of a series the committee plans in the upcoming weeks as it works to complement what the Murphy administration is doing to tackle climate change: pushing to electrify the transportation sector, grow New Jersey’s solar sector, and become the hub of an offshore wind industry, according to Fiordaliso.
Both cabinet members appealed to legislators to support those and other yet to be announced clean-energy initiatives.
“There should be no mistake that New Jersey is ground zero for some of the worst impacts of climate change,’’ LaTourette said. New Jersey has a risk of sea level rising two times faster than in most other places on the planet, he noted. “We have a serious likelihood of 2 feet of sea level rise by 2050 and 5 feet by 2100.
“Between now and 2050, the harm that we’ll experience is baked in. It doesn’t matter how many EVs (electric vehicles) we put on the road or how many wind turbines are twisting in the ocean. Depending on how fast we do those things will determine just how bad things will be after 2050,’’ LaTourette said.
Already, New Jersey has suffered through eight major storm events, causing 67 deaths, according to Fiordaliso, resulting in several billions of dollars in economic losses. “Is clean energy expensive? Yes, but how expensive would it be if we did nothing?’’ he asked.
Spotlight on transportation
For the short term, the administration is focusing, to a large degree, on electrifying the transportation sector — the single largest source of carbon pollution in the state and most of the rest of the country. New Jersey has about 30,000 electric vehicles on the road, but it is far short of a goal to have 300,000 zero-emission vehicles operating by 2025.
Those efforts received an important boost Thursday when the Biden administration announced the state would receive $104.3 million over the next five years to build a charging network for EVs from the bipartisan infrastructure bill approved by Congress last year. The first installment is expected to amount to $15.4 million to support an electric charging network.
For the most part, both of Murphy’s cabinet members avoided talking about new initiatives, although Fiordaliso acknowledged the state must get more involved in promoting energy storage, a policy yet to take hold in New Jersey to the extent recommended in the administration’s Energy Master Plan.
Storing energy
By the end of 2021, the state had a target of developing 600 megawatts of energy storage. It has less than 100 MW of storage capacity, which is seen as crucial to make both wind and solar energy economically viable by storing capacity when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind blow.
“It is one of the vehicles that makes green energy work,’’ Fiordaliso said.
If the state is going to achieve its climate goals, LaTourette said it will require help from every sector — government, economic sectors, communities and individuals. “It requires everyone rowing in the same direction and fast,’’ he said.
