Current Issue - Commentary
Ava Caridad, Editor

Putting the garden back in the Garden State

Greetings from New Jersey, ranked 10th of the 50 U.S. states in improving energy efficiency to respond to high prices, energy security and global warming, according to the advocacy group known as the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE). A recent ACEEE report rated U.S. states on "a wide range of the proven effective and readily available efficiency strategies." Among areas examined were building codes, transportation and land-use policies, utilities' efficiency programs, financial incentives and support for research.

California was ranked number one, followed by Oregon, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, Washington, Minnesota/Massachusetts (tie), Wisconsin and last but not least, New Jersey. Idaho was rated as the most improved state in the category, moving from 25th two years ago to 13th.

New Jersey was also part of another eco-conscious group of 10, when, in September of this year, ten Northeastern states held the nation's first auction of pollution credits aimed at curbing global warming. According to the Associated Press, the program, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, puts a price on carbon dioxide pollution, giving power plants a financial incentive to cut emissions. Auction proceeds will go toward energy conservation and renewable energy programs in each of the 10 participating states: New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Electric power generators must pay for allowances covering the amount of carbon they emit, and the initiative will provide a market-based auction and trading system in which the generators can buy, sell and trade the emissions allowances. The program aims to gradually reduce carbon emissions by reducing the emissions limit in a series of steps, until it is 10% below the current level a decade from now. The companies that don't reduce emissions can buy allowances from companies that have, thereby creating a financial incentive to reduce pollution because the more environmentally friendly plants won't have to buy as many credits and because they can sell any they don't need.

In response to critics who have argued that the limit is too high, NJ Governor Jon Corzine said the limit could be lowered at subsequent auctions if the initiative's member states determine it's too high to have the intended effect. The program goal is to hold carbon dioxide emissions steady through 2014 and then gradually reduce them; it is widely viewed as a model for future programs nationally and around the globe. Other regional greenhouse gas coalitions, such as the Western Climate Initiative and the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Accord, are in earlier stages of development.

New Jersey has usually always received a bad rap in popular 20th C. culture; it's been portrayed, not always incorrectly, as overpopulated (with rude people), polluted, congested, somewhat corrupt and a little disorderly. And we're proud of it. However, Jerseyans are equally proud to be in the forefront of numerous initiatives to clean up our environment on state, national and global levels. Working alone or together, individual states, large or small, have the potential to accomplish a lot of good.


Editor