If you burn fossil fuels to heat, cool and power your life, you’re also burning money.

We’ve known for a while that clean, renewable energy sources like wind and solar are healthier, safer alternatives to fossil gas or fuel oil because they don’t pollute and they don’t worsen the effects of climate change.

But now the affordability of clean energy is coming into equally sharp focus.

The latest evidence comes from a recently released study by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities showing that wider use of electric vehicles and electric appliances in buildings greatly reduces the impact of clean-energy programs on electric rates — keeping electricity affordable for everyone.

The dollar amounts are telling. People who drive electric vehicles, make their homes more energy efficient — which would decrease energy usage — and switch to efficient electric heat pumps for heating and cooling would likely spend hundreds of dollars a year less on their energy bills in 2030 than they spent in 2020 — and substantially less than those who continue to rely on fossil fuels.

For example, a typical South Jersey household spent about $4,800 in 2020 for electricity, gas and fuel for driving. The bill would rise to about $5,500 by 2030 if the household did everything the same but would drop to $3,840 by switching from a gas-powered car to an electric one, taking energy-efficiency steps at home and using efficient electric appliances for water and space heating instead of fossil gas.

Adopting electric appliances reduces household energy bills because electric rates are projected to remain affordable and electric heat pumps and electric vehicles use much less energy.

Air-source heat pumps provide much more efficient heating and cooling than appliances that burn fossil gas. The difference is physics: A heat pump works by moving heat energy, which takes a lot less energy than creating heat.

Massive federal investments

And there’s good news beyond what the study found. Massive federal investments in electric vehicles and electrification of buildings under the new Inflation Reduction Act will provide significant incentives to help consumers purchase efficient air-source heat pumps as well as new and used electric vehicles. Over the past year, federal dollars have already started flowing to New Jersey that are being used to support new highly efficient affordable housing construction that guarantees low energy bills, as well as a substantial increase in funding to improve weatherization for low-income households.

The BPU study evaluates three policy pathways, each of which would aggressively reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The pathways achieve reductions of 50% to 60% by 2030, consistent with updated climate science and Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive order from November 2021 that requires 50% reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Equally important, more aggressive reductions in the use of fossil fuels also reduce co-pollutants which harm public health.

Current state policies require New Jersey by 2050 to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to 80% below 2006 levels across the economy and to rely exclusively on clean energy sources for electricity. Seeing the writing on the wall for their products, gas and oil companies are raising misleading arguments about the costs of switching to clean energy. Typical is a multimillion-dollar misinformation campaign by the Fuel Merchants Association stoking fears about electric heat pumps, which have been shown to work effectively in climates colder than New Jersey. What they don’t tell consumers is that households using oil and propane for heating their homes can save money today by switching to electric appliances and the BPU study confirms substantial savings in 2030 for these households.

BPU report counters ‘false claims’

The BPU report’s findings should put to rest the fossil fuel industry’s false claims that New Jersey can’t afford switching from fossil fuels to clean energy. BPU’s study comes on top of an Acadia Center analysis showing that the average New Jersey homeowner can reduce energy bills by using electric heat pumps. In some areas, savings would exceed 50% by combining efficient heat pumps with weatherization measures.

The urgency of combating the devastating effects of climate change is too great for policymakers to give in to the fossil fuel industry’s desperate rearguard actions. Storms of ever-greater intensity already batter our state, causing loss of life and property. Sea levels are rising and severe flooding is occurring more frequently.

New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan puts the state on the right path. Now is the time to move faster, not slower, down that path. Legislators should increase subsidies and incentives that help consumers save on their energy bills, especially in underserved communities so that all New Jerseyans benefit from clean-energy savings. New Jersey lags behind other Northeastern states in these efforts.

Gov. Murphy took an important step recently by extending for a third year popular incentives to help consumers purchase electric vehicles. The governor should take similar actions to support the market for efficient air-source heat pumps. As the recent BPU report demonstrates, a clean-energy future is not only better for our health and climate, but also better for our wallets.