New Jersey gets ambitious

Plans to make huge cuts in greenhouse gases 6

Well it would be nice to know how they plan to do all this, but these certainly are ballsy goals out of New Jersey:

• Reduce greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020 (a 13 percent drop) and 80 percent below current levels by 2050.

• Regulators have one year to measure current and 1990 emissions and recommend a plan for meeting the 2020 goal. By 2010, they must have a plan for reaching the 2050 target.

• To protect electric suppliers, the state will adopt measures to keep customers from buying power from out-of-state producers who don't face greenhouse limits.

• An independent review panel will assess the economic, ecological and social impacts of the cuts.

It passed by an enormous margin, too: 72-8 in the Assembly, 36-1 in the Senate.

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

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  1. Sam Wells Posted 2:14 pm
    22 Jun 2007

    Practicalities in New JoiseyIf there is amusing part to this story, as the termpwerature rises folks in the Northeast might not need to much heating energy, like electricity, natural gas, fuel heating oil, propane, and so forth.  It has been a long time since I saw data about summer versus winter energy consumption in various states, but up there it has been cold as heck in the winter.
    So if it warmed up I guess more homes will have central air or window units but my understanding is that people down south spend more on summer A/C cooling.  You well-travelled folks from Joisey know sometimes it gets to over 112 F in Dallas, Phoenix, and Las Vegas.
    But wait a minute, Chaos Theory should dictate that the weather will go bonkers, with lower lows and highs, moisture all crazy in floods one place and drought next door.  That always seemed to be a corrolary of Global Warming, the nutty weather Chaos part.  I wonder why?
    The implications are that will average temperatures may be inching up in terms of hundredths of a degree Celsius, the extremes and statistical ranges could be getting wider much faster.  And the last hurricnae in the Red Sea was like in 1954.
    I'm sure it's a circadian cycle of several kinds but we're even seeing weather models perform horribly ... no explanation comes close to carbon dioxide, water vapor, and heat flux yet something is missing.  Even the models used by IPCC seemed to show steady-state performace instead of the crazy stuff we see everywhere today.  
    Good morning New Joisey!

    /sammie

    Onward through the fog
  2. Pangolin's avatar

    Pangolin Posted 3:15 pm
    22 Jun 2007

    Polar Ice Cap maybe?All our weather models are based upon a world where there's a big pile of ice covering the arctic ocean. The recent shrinkage of the arctic ice pack could be throwing those models into the toilet. We really have no idea what kind of weather we'll be getting.
    It makes it kind of hard to raise reliable crops but as every american knows.....food comes from the supermarket.
    May you live in interesting times.

    Put the Carbon Back
  3. caniscandida Posted 3:50 pm
    22 Jun 2007

    New Jersey experiences

    Nobody in New Jersey natively pronounces the place "New Joisey."  There are plenty of immigrants from Brooklyn who may talk like that, but they are hardly normative.
    The northwestern angle of the state, between the Catskills to the North and the Poconos across the Delaware to the West, is a gorgeous, serene  bit of landscape.
    Though they have often been very tastelessly developed, the off-shore islands of the New Jersey seashore are remarkably beautiful, with some of the finest sandy beaches in the world.
    The wetlands protected by those barrier islands provide very rich habitat for lots of small critters.
    Ditto the "pine barrens" of South Jersey.
    The southwestern coast of New Jersey, along Delaware Bay, is a unique breeding ground for one of the Earth's most ancient large arthropods, of the Chelicerata, spider-kin, the horseshoe crabs.
    With some imagination, the map of New Jersey looks like a low-drooping tit.  The nipple ends in the charming Victorianish town of Cape May, on the Atlantic side, where I worked one summer ages ago, and Cape May Point on the bay side.  Cape May Point is a principal migration focus for many migratory birds, especially raptors.  And therefore it is a great center for birders.
    My students at Montclair State University are among the finest people whom I have ever had the honor of working with.



    Chickens are our cousins!

    So are other sensitive animals!

    Enough is enough!

    No more factory farms!
  4. Sam Wells Posted 2:31 am
    23 Jun 2007

    I was kidding, dude!I meant no attack on the wonderful place and citizens of New Jersey...
    The background - I grew up in Connecticut and let's just say it was a "provincial" experience.  We were stuck in between New Yawk and Bah Habba.  Our closest buddies were in Rhode Island, and I spent years summering on Block Island.  The summer boaters from New Joisey were rather infamous partiers to say the least ... the Bah Habba types were Bluebloods who never had any fun.  Perceptions, perceptions, and inccuracies all, but it was meant to be funny.
    Thirty years later I'm working the the Port of New York and guess where most all the ship traffic goes - to New Jersey!  They are very concerned about ozone, particulate, and greenhouse gasses and have been proactive in implementing many programs started in California.  It is a plasure to work with these folks.
    But I'm still a born-again kidder!

    -sammie

    Onward through the fog
  5. Delay And Deny's avatar

    Delay And Deny Posted 3:43 am
    25 Jun 2007

    Bailo's Emissions Goals

    I plan to reduce all my CO2 emissions to 0 by 2050.
    Since I'm 47 now - I will be dead by then.
    It should be doable.

    John Bailo


    You Read It Here First
  6. Kate Sheppard's avatar

    Kate Sheppard Posted 4:14 am
    25 Jun 2007

    Jersey, representin'I'm so proud of my motherland. Eat our dust, wimpy West Coasters!

    Kate Sheppard

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