New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan is getting an update, a much-anticipated task given its role as the road map for how the state is going to transition away from fossil fuels and meet ambitious climate goals.
In a notice filed Monday, the state Board of Public Utilities announced a series of three webinars next month to begin assessing how well it is achieving the clean-energy goals and policies in the 2019 plan, a blueprint criticized by some as not adequately addressing just how much it will cost consumers.
The initial plan identified a goal of reaching a 100% clean-energy economy by 2050, a target Gov. Phil Murphy advanced to 2035 in an executive order even as the state has stumbled in achieving key interim goals.
The state fell well short of developing 600 megawatts of energy storage by 2021, a technology critical to maintaining the reliability of the power grid due to the intermittent nature of solar and wind power envisioned in the plan as replacing gas-fired generation of electricity. Two of the first three offshore wind projects off the Jersey coast were canceled abruptly by Ørsted, their developer. The state also is lagging on milestones to electrify the transportation system, according to clean-energy advocates.
“We welcome the review, but this cannot be just a rubber stamp on the old plan,’’ said Ray Cantor, deputy government affairs manager of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. “We also must consider the cost, which was painfully absent in the last EMP.’’
Progress report
Environmentalists welcomed the push to update the plan. “We are in the midst of a climate crisis,’’ said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey. “The next few years will be the critical years to meet our climate goals.’’
In its notice, the BPU said the update will provide an overview of the state’s progress toward achieving 100% clean energy by 2035 and reducing carbon emissions by 80% below the levels set in 2006 by mid-century.
“The 2024 EMP will serve as the whole-of-government progress report on the goals and strategies in the 2019 EMP, outline the changing landscape of state and federal support for climate action and determine the basis for the development of actionable next steps to reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and maximize clean energy intake economy-wide.”
“The EMP update will be a gut-check moment for the administration to accelerate the electric revolution for residents.’’ O’Malley said.
Electrifying the transportation and building sectors are two of the most important strategies of the plan, tackling the two largest sources of climate-causing pollution in New Jersey, and, perhaps, the most contentious.
