Phil Murphy says NJ will target 100% clean energy 15 years ahead of schedule

4-minute read

Gov. Phil Murphy seems to have taken losing his “Greenest Governor” title last month to heart. He announced Wednesday during a speech at Rutgers University that he intends to move his clean energy goal up by 15 years.

Making the target for 100% clean energy 2035, instead of 2050, was one of the six environment-related actions Murphy said he plans to take. One of the other major plans he announced would require new vehicles in 2035 to have zero emissions.

Murphy said he will sign an executive order making the clean energy change and will pair it with support for a clean electricity standard to “ensure that every kilowatt of electricity that is sold in New Jersey comes from a clean source,” according to his office.

Murphy also said he'd sign an executive order to put a target on building electrification — with the goal of 400,000 residential spaces and 20,000 commercial spaces — by 2030, including both retrofits and new buildings. That would account for about 10% of the state's building stock, he said.

Another executive order will direct the Board of Public Utilities to start looking into what the future of natural gas utility will look like in New Jersey. Administration officials said that this is a planning process with input from utilities, labor groups and environmentalists to plan what the shift away from fossil fuels will look like and what impact it will have on utilities in the state.

Murphy will also implement Advance Clean Cars II, which he is obligated to do to maintain the California standard the state previously agreed to follow. It starts a process so that all light duty passenger vehicles and light duty trucks sold in New Jersey would be electric by 2035.

NJ climate:Phil Murphy the environmental crusader? Critics say his actions don't make the grade

Climate change:Here are the six ways Phil Murphy plans to combat climate change in New Jersey

The governor also announced $70 million will be made available for Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative funding to help buy medium and heavy duty vehicles. The Department of Environmental Protection has a list of vehicles that have applied for funding and it will be targeted toward overburdened communities for things like school buses, forklifts and garbage trucks to target emissions in those areas.

Lastly, Murphy announced that the state will be moving forward with the next step for the "Protecting Against Climate Threat" or PACT rules. These are land use rules for construction that take into account sea-level rise and other climate impacts for projects seeking permits.

Some of the PACT rules, many related to climate pollution in airspace, have already moved forward, administration officials said. The new set would focus on resiliency and protection against climate change threats.

Murphy said during his remarks that the state has challenges and “none is as existential than the challenge we face from climate change.”

“We are being hit by more and more severe rain events and oftentimes devastating flooding in non-coastal communities,” he said. “Along the Jersey Shore — one of our greatest natural resources — higher tides are leading to flooded roads and communities even on clear days.”

He said that his administration has made an effort to protect against worsening climate impact and that Wednesday’s announcement is about “giving consumers more choices and more chances to join us in creating a cleaner, more sustainable, and more affordable energy future.”

Murphy acknowledged that there will be challenges faced when implementing some of these things but that it’s “time to change our mindset from simply being ‘Stronger Than the Storm’ to being ‘Smarter than the Storm,'" a reference to the Christie-era slogan when New Jersey was recovering from Superstorm Sandy.

“The ultimate goal of every New Jerseyan is to leave to their kids and to future generations a state that is better than the one in which we currently live.” He said. “That’s my goal, too.”

PSE&G subcontractors replace utility poles, solar panels and repair downed wires on Day St., along the Clifton High School stadium, on Wednesday, July 7, 2021 from thunderstorms the prior evening.

Pending projects

Murphy’s announcement comes in the same week that Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and 20 Senators and Assembly members asked the governor to block a plan to build a natural gas power plant at the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission’s plant in Newark.

If the project is approved by Murphy’s administration, opponents say it would fly in the face of the governor’s public positions on climate change and environmental justice.

The proposed power plant would be used only as an emergency backup in case the sewerage plant were to lose power as it did for days following Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The outage caused 840 million gallons of raw sewage to pour into Newark Bay and surrounding waterways.

The project is still under review by the Department of Environmental Protection, which will determine whether to issue a key air permit.

In a letter sent to Murphy on Monday, the lawmakers asked Murphy to force the sewerage commission to withdraw its permit.  

“Placement of a fourth gas power plant in [Newark] goes against the state’s responsibility to establish clean energy solutions and address the problems created by prior energy plants in our community.” Baraka said in a statement.

Moving the goal posts

Murphy has made a range of policy changes since 2018 to make New Jersey greener, including rejoining the greenhouse gas pact, expanding electric vehicle capacity and aggressively pursuing wind energy. Those actions helped him earn the title of America's greenest governor by the League of Conservation Voters.

But environmental groups have not been satisfied with the pace of progress, and LCV recently stripped Murphy of his title.

Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey speaks at the construction site of the Hudson Tunnel Project on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, in New York.

The 2050 goal was initially announced when Murphy unveiled his energy master plan in January 2020, but there are loopholes in the phrase “clean energy.” Administration officials defined clean energy as “carbon-free resources.”

The energy master plan presented in 2020 does not require an electric grid powered exclusively by renewable energy such as solar and wind. Instead, it defines clean energy as "carbon-neutral," meaning it includes sources like nuclear energy because it doesn't emit greenhouse gases.

Now administration officials say that it can be achieved “if we continue on our current trajectory of clean energy development.”

Officials said that the Board of Public Utilities already has a “set of really robust clean energy programs” in place and that the current standard has a goal post of 50% renewable energy by 2030.

“In addition to our nuclear, we’ll expect to hit over 85 (percent) by 2030,” administration officials said ahead of Murphy's speech. “We estimate that we’ll hit 99.5 % clean energy by 2035.”

But saying it and doing it are two different things. Regardless of Murphy’s efforts, there is still a 10-year window between when he leaves office and the new goal.

Administration officials hope to memorialize the work through legislation, noting a bill from Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, and other work with the Legislature. They are also working on reforms and hope that the “programs that we’re setting up would have a life beyond this administration.”

Amy Goldsmith, state director of Clean Water Action, said that the state is “way behind schedule” and called for Murphy to take action now by doing things like taking a stand against fossil fuel projects, adopting the Inland Flood Protection rule by May 1 and proposing coastal, wetland and other land use rules by that date.

“Framing up a house is not the same as finishing it so you can live in it. Proclaiming climate leader status is not the same as actually being out in front of the pack. We need to act today, not just plan for tomorrow,” Goldsmith said.

Republican legislators, meanwhile, called the changes "extreme, expensive, and totally unrealistic.”

Senate Minority Leader Steven Oroho said that the state's electric grid is already struggling and that this will be "putting people’s lives and our economy at risk so Murphy can earn kudos from his liberal friends.”

His colleague Sen. Anthony Bucco, R-Morris, said noted that the original plan was estimated to cost $1.4 trillion and would be an "absolutely astronomical financial burden for homeowners, businesses, and taxpayers.”