New Jersey’s Global Warming Response Act (“GWRA”) calls for New Jersey to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% from their 2006 levels by 2050. In January 2020, Governor Murphy presented New Jersey’s latest Energy Master Plan (“EMP”) as the roadmap to achieving this goal. The EMP outlines seven strategies the state will use in order to meet this goal and others outlines in the GWRA.

One key focus of the Murphy Administration’s plan to achieve its clean-energy goals is to electrify the transportation sector, which according to the EMP accounts for 42% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. In the short term, the EMP states a goal of having 330,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2025. The long-term strategy includes continuing to encourage the rollout of electric vehicles and charging stations throughout the state as well as transforming the public transport sector to electric fleets. Specifically, the state has pledged $27.5 million to be spent on electric buses in the Camden, electric vehicles in urban areas, and electric vehicle charging stations throughout the state.

Another of the seven core strategies is reducing energy consumption from the building sector. According to the EMP, the building sector accounts for a combined 62% of the state’s total end-use energy consumption. This strategy includes the decarbonization and electrification of new and existing buildings. One initiative for accomplishing this is providing incentives for net zero carbon homes.

Along with the newest version of the EMP, in January 2020 Governor Murphy also signed Executive Order 100 to support these initiatives. Specifically, this EO required the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to integrate climate change consideration into its regulatory and permitting programs. The DEP is called to keep an updated list of the regulations it plans on revising in order to meet this requirement.

You can read more about New Jersey’s Global Warming Response Act in the state’s recent “80×50 Report” found here: https://www.nj.gov/dep/climatechange/docs/nj-gwra-80×50-report-2020.pdf

You can read more about the state’s most recent EMP here: https://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/562020/approved/20200127a.shtml