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www.environmentnewjersey.org 

The Global Warming Response Act (A3301/S2114)
Prime Sponsors: Assemblywoman Linda Stender and Senator Barbara Buono
Global Warming is Real
New Jerseyans know that global warming is real.  It will pack a mean punch, especially for our children and future generations, if we don't curb our emissions.

For our state, global warming means more flooding and air pollution. Our coastal treasures, including all of our prized beaches, are at risk of flooding from sea level rise. Rising sea levels would also contaminate fresh drinking water sources and cause chronic flooding over 9 percent of New Jersey's land, including the Meadowlands, Atlantic City, Cape May, the Delaware Bay Shore and Long Beach Island. Global warming also means more dangerous heat waves and more air pollution, putting seniors and children with asthma and other health problems at risk.
Global Warming Solutions
The good news is that New Jersey can help put the nation on the path to a secure future by tackling global warming. We've had a lot of success here in New Jersey adopting policies to reduce our global warming emissions, but even with those policies in place, our emissions are projected to grow by 10 percent in the next two decades. It is clear that much more must be done.
To avoid the worst effects of global warming, scientists say that we must cut global warming emissions by more than half and as much as 70-85 percent by the middle of this century. We can do that by making big changes to reduce our energy consumption, shifting to clean, renewable sources of energy and requiring global warming polluters to pay for every pound of global warming pollution they emit.
New Jersey's commitment to tackling global warming can have a big impact. If New Jersey were it's own country, we would rank 32nd in the world for global warming emissions -- more than Argentina, Greece and Israel. New Jersey can also show other states and the nation that solving global warming is more than possible.
To do this Environment New Jersey is calling on Governor Corzine to pledge to reduce New Jersey's global warming emissions by 70 percent below current levels by 2050, put a plan in place to start cutting our emissions right away, and work with the New Jersey legislature to pass the Global Warming Response Act (A3301/S2114) requiring mandatory limits on our total global warming emissions.


The Global Warming Response Act

A3301/S2114, sponsored by Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-22) and Senator Barbara Buono (D-18), requires mandatory limits on New Jersey’s global warming emissions from all sources.  It is modeled off the California Global Warming Solutions Act, AB32 (Nunez/Pavley) that Governor Schwarzenegger.

Specifically, the act requires the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to establish a greenhouse gas reduction program to reduce the global warming emissions, primarily carbon dioxide, produced in New Jersey to below 1990 levels (roughly 20 percent below current levels) by 2020.  

Within a year of the act’s passage, the NJDEP is required to establish relevant global warming emissions inventories, prioritize sources for global warming emissions reductions and adopt rules and regulations to achieve reductions below 1990 levels by 2020.  

On or before January 2008, the act requires the NJDEP to establish a global warming emissions monitoring and reduction program and establish a series of interim emissions reduction requirements targeting specific sources to achieve the reductions.  The first global warming reduction requirement will take effect on January 1, 2012 with additional caps taking effect on January 1 of subsequent years.  

The act requires the NJDEP to identify, monitor and enforce projected and annual emissions from all sources, including emissions from electricity sources located outside of the state that import electricity for use in New Jersey, and to monitor emissions from all sources.  According to the most recent data available, 52 percent of New Jersey’s global warming emissions is from transportation, 16 percent is from in-state electricity generation, 13 percent is from direct use of fossil fuels in homes, 11 percent is from direct use of fossil fuels in industry and 8 percent is from direct use of fossil fuels in commercial business.  New Jersey also produces emissions through consumption of electricity generated in other states.  Increases in emissions from the transportation sector and electricity generation are responsible for the bulk of projected emissions growth.  

Lastly, the act requires that on or before January 1, 2009 and annually thereafter, the NJDEP must report back to the Governor and the legislature on current levels of global warming emissions and progress toward meeting the reduction requirements.  By January 1, 2015, the NJDEP must evaluate the attainment or maintenance of the 2020 reduction requirement and adopt further regulations to attain or maintain the 2020 requirement or require further reductions beyond the requirement.  If further reductions are required, the NJDEP must establish an additional global warming emissions reduction requirement by 2030 and a schedule to attain that level of reduction.    

The Global Warming Response Act is ground-breaking legislation.  If passed, New Jersey will be one of the first states to adopt mandatory limits on global warming emissions from all sources.  

Environment New Jersey is urging all members of the New Jersey Assembly and Senate to co-sponsor A3301/S2114 without delay and to vote YES for passage of the act in committee and on the floor of the state legislature.  
