New Jersey voters cut the field on Tuesday to two major-party candidates in the race for governor. Whoever is chosen as the next governor on Nov. 7 will inherit an unprecedented opportunity and bear a tremendous burden to insulate the state from the worst effects of climate change, while staking out turf as a national leader – and jobs creator – in the pursuit of a clean energy economy.
With climate change already taking an obvious toll in New Jersey, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
A National Climate Assessment undertaken three years ago found that New Jersey and other Northeast states were already experiencing heat waves, heavy downpours, and sea level rise associated with climate change. Infrastructure, agriculture, fisheries, and ecosystems are being compromised. Mosquitos are more aggressive, and New Jersey winters are no longer cold enough to kill off the insects. Water-dependent pharmaceutical and manufacturing industries employing tens of thousands of workers are uncertain about future supplies of abundant, cheap, clean water. Hotter days tax those water sources and worsen ground-level ozone, a contributor to asthma and other respiratory ailments. Everyone is more vulnerable, the report concluded, but none more so than the state’s most disadvantaged residents.
One need look no further than New Jersey’s 130-mile coastline to realize our vulnerability to an even modest rise in sea level. Or remember Superstorm Sandy, which washed away beaches, boardwalks, and homes all over the state. The state’s $43 billion-plus tourism industry, and the jobs that come with it, is largely dependent on a profitable summer season at #JerseyShore.
What’s this got to do with the New Jersey governor’s race? Everything!
Democrat Phil Murphy or Republican Kim Guadagno will direct state-level environmental policy and planning for at least the next four years during a most critical time for the planet. We need a governor committed to implementing a strategy for 100% clean energy and unafraid to make sound investments for our future.
The ante got exponentially higher when President Trump assumed the White House and last week pulled the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, a global pact to cut the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change. Some states have joined the U.S. Climate Alliance to pursue the goals agreed on in Paris. Our next governor must do the same; Murphy has pledged that he will.
When it comes to environmental matters, New Jersey looked to the federal government to watch its back. Now, the reverse is true. We need a governor who will defy the federal government when it pushes outdated and dangerous fossil fuels, and will instead tackle climate change head on, setting New Jersey on the most aggressive path in America to achieving 100% clean energy by 2050.
Murphy impressed the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters (New Jersey LCV) early on as the right person for the job. That’s why New Jersey LCV was the first statewide environmental organization to endorse him in the Democratic Primary, and why the New Jersey LCV Victory Fund made the largest investment ever by an environmental organization to help him become his party’s nominee. Murphy made the environment a centerpiece of his campaign, committed to achieving 100% clean energy, and promised to build New Jersey’s economy with good-paying green jobs. He has well thought out plans to safeguard drinking water in the Highlands and Pinelands, preserve open spaces and parks, and modernize NJ Transit, which will reduce the state’s carbon footprint and lessen traffic by getting cars off the roads. He’s shown himself to be an environmental champion at a time the state desperately needs one.
Unlike Murphy, Guadagno didn’t spend much time in the campaign focusing on environmental or energy issues. They are not addressed on her website, though she has pledged to streamline (aka reduce) regulations.
Like Murphy, Guadagno supports returning New Jersey to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a nine-state pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, that Gov. Christie hastily exited. She also staked out pro-environment positions on off-shore wind and off-shore drilling. She’s less concrete about her plans for transit infrastructure. Though New Jersey is in the midst of a mass transit crisis, Guadagno would conduct a top-to-bottom audit before making any decisions to fix our failed commuter rail system. That seems like kicking the can down the road.
The next governor has a lot of catching up to do. Gov. Christie ignored the big picture when he cancelled a desperately needed new rail tunnel between New Jersey and New York, raided the Clean Energy Fund year after year, and sought to steal pollution settlement monies from harmed communities. A new governor also will have to jump-start wind energy production and re-establish New Jersey as a leader in solar jobs; New Jersey ceded 1,015 solar jobs last year, 14% of the total, at a time of explosive growth for solar industry employment in 39 states.
Though the challenges are real, establishing New Jersey as a clean energy leader can be done.
The world needs bold actions on the state level to safeguard our environment. That will take a governor with vision, planning and leadership. The state will be waiting. The country will be watching.
Drew Tompkins is policy coordinator of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, a Trenton-based organization dedicated to protecting New Jersey’s precious natural resources, electing environmental champions and holding elected officials accountable for key environmental votes.