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New Jersey

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This summary is part of Beyond the Beltway: A Report on State Energy and Climate Policies produced by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law

 

Despite a Republican Governor, Chris Christie, who took the state out of the regional emissions trading program (the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI), New Jersey has started to do quite a bit on renewable energy in recent years. According to the Energy Information Administration, by 2016 New Jersey got almost all of its energy from natural gas (56%) and nuclear (39%). But the state has an aggressive renewable portfolio standard that will require about one-fourth of the state’s power to come from renewables by 2021. That would be timely, if only because one of its nuclear reactors at Oyster Creek is scheduled to close in 2019. The renewable portfolio standard is quite complicated, with special provisions for solar and for offshore wind.[1] The main source of renewables is solar (about two-thirds of which is distributed solar).

There are also several state incentive programs for energy efficiency, and a demand response program (which compensates users for reducing their own power use during periods of peak demand) run by the interstate grid operator for the region, PJM.

Christie spent much of his time in office planning to become President or at the least Vice President, which meant cultivating the Koch brothers and later Donald Trump. While he often stood as a barrier against progress, he left office as an extremely unpopular governor and Democratic leaders in the state wasted no time making plans for the post-Chris Christie era, preparing an energy policy overhaul that could significantly increase use of renewables. Under its new leadership, the state has already rejoined RGGI.[2]

Newly elected Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, who handily won the election, promised vigorous action during the campaign including rejoining RGGI, adding 3,500 MW of offshore wind and 2,000 MW of energy storage by 2030, and increasing solar production.

Thus, there is every reason to expect New Jersey to move forward aggressively now that it is under unified Democratic control. A lengthy new joint policy paper from Rutgers and Georgetown Universities provides a lot of suggestions for how the state could go about this.[3] And the Washington Post reports that one big area of expansion may be offshore wind.[4]

 

  1. Department of Energy, “Tax Credits, Rebates & Savings,” https://energy.gov/savings/renewables-portfolio-standard-0.
  2. Tom Johnson, “Planning a Clean-Energy Agenda for When Christie is Former Governor,” NJ Spotlight (Jan. 4, 2017), http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/01/03/planning-a-clean-energy-agenda-for-when-christie-is-former-governor/.
  3. Gabriel Pacyniak et al., “An Examination of Policy Options for Achieving Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions in New Jersey,” (September 2017), http://www.georgetownclimate.org/files/report/Achieving%20Greenhouse%20Gas%20Emissions%20Reductions%20in%20NJ.pdf.
  4. Dino Grandoni, “The Energy 202: With Chris Christie Gone, Wind Energy May Pick Up Speed in New Jersey,” Wash. Post (Nov. 13, 2017), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the- energy-202/2017/11/13/the-energy-202-with-chris-christie-gone-wind-energy-may-pick-up-speed-in-new-jersey/5a091e0630fb045a2e002fb5.