New Jersey’s new plan to tackle global warming is more serious than prior efforts, thanks to input from advocates.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s final Greenhouse Gas Recommendation Report, released in December, was mandated by 2007’s Global Warming Response Act (GWRA), which requires NJ to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and cut emissions to 80% below the 2006 level by 2050.

Like the 2008 draft, the report relies on three “core measures” to reach the 2020 reduction goal. Two are energy-related — implementation of the state’s Energy Master Plan and the carbon-trading Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Only one is transportation-related, the Low Emission Vehicle program to phase in California-style car fuel efficiency standards.  However, NJDEP now recommends that additional land use and transportation reforms take place in the near-term, including support for transit-oriented development, an evaluation of usage based auto insurance and high-occupancy toll lanes, exploring changes to the Municipal Land Use Law and supporting the new complete streets policy at NJDOT. Such reforms had been shunted into a longer term timeline in the draft.

In a new and significant section, the report more urgently calls for operating aid to NJ Transit to reduce driving and double transit ridership by 2050.  At the same time, the report recognizes that NJ Transit lacks funds to cover current operating costs, let alone the increased service that would be necessary to accommodate an additional 223 million trips per year.

Both of these changes seem prompted by TSTC and NJ Future, which had called for faster action on transportation and land use reform and more specific transit recommendations in extensive comments to the draft report.

However, the report suffers from several notable omissions.  Still absent from the report is the impact of the large-scale widenings of the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike.  The projects will together add approximately 270 lane miles and lead to significant emissions increases.

According to the earlier draft, the measures needed to be implemented within 18 months to meet the goals of the GWRA.  That was now 15 months ago, yet no mention of a deadline or timing target is mentioned in the new draft, as if the passage of time somehow lessened the urgency of the recommendations.

The biggest question mark of all is the report’s discounting of power plant emissions from exported electricity. In a table summarizing greenhouse gas reductions (on pg. 29 of the report), 10.1 million metric tons (MMT) of CO2 from such power plants are counted as eliminated, even though those emissions are produced in NJ.  It appears that NJ will only reach the 2020 goal by playing fast and loose with the numbers; when the 10.1 MMT is included, the state’s 2020 emissions are estimated at 126 MMT of CO2, over the state’s target of 123 million metric tons.

The fuzzy math notwithstanding, the report is generally an improvement over the draft and contains many serious and implementable strategies for addressing NJ’s emissions.  But the recommendations are worth no more than the paper they are printed on unless Governor Christie and the Legislature act on them. Gov. Christie’s nominee for Commissioner of NJDEP, Bob Martin, has not said much about the plan.

Image: Adam Moreira/Wikimedia Commons.