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Clean energy is a prescription for a healthier New Jersey. This is why | Opinion
As physicians, we take an oath to “do no harm.” But every day, health professionals see patients whose health is harmed not by choices they make, but by the air they breathe, the heat they endure, and environmental conditions beyond their control.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the growing health toll of our continued reliance on polluting fossil fuels like oil and gas. That’s why the reintroduction and passage of 100% Clean Energy by 2035 legislation in New Jersey is not just a climate issue — it’s a public health imperative.
Despite setbacks at the federal level, New Jersey is on the cusp of a booming, healthier clean energy economy. Solar is now the cheapest form of electricity generation. Advances in home energy efficiency, regional wind capacity, battery storage, and low-cost financing through entities like the New Jersey Green Bank are making clean energy more affordable and accessible than ever.
The state has more than 200,000 electric vehicles on the road, 4,200 charging stations, $13 million in Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding for zero-emissions school buses, and $400 million from IRA to electrify our ports. All of these are reducing pollution in our neighborhoods and schools while saving New Jerseyans money.
The only thing standing in our way is policy inertia. Codifying 100% Clean Energy by 2035 into law would put New Jersey on a clear path to a safer, healthier, and more prosperous future — one that protects our air, stabilizes our climate, and centers equity and resilience.
As an example, one model of the health benefits of greenhouse gas reduction from IRA investments predicts that nationally we can avoid nearly 1 million asthma attacks, 41,000 heart attacks, and 19,000 hospital admissions — a total of more than 3 million lost workdays and 33,000 deaths — by 2050, just by cleaning up our air and reducing pollution. A 100% clean energy policy for New Jersey not only carries environmental and economic benefits — it’s sound medical practice.
As we head into summer, it’s important to remember that last year was the hottest summer on record, and that every future summer is predicted to become the hottest ever. Excessive heat already kills around 12,000 Americans annually — about as many as gun homicides — with that number projected to increase rapidly if climate change is unabated. Just in New Jersey, heat now causes almost 450 deaths a year, rising to nearly 4,000 per year at the end of the century if nothing is done to slow climate change.
Of course, polluting fuels like oil and gas produce more than just carbon dioxide. Burning fossil fuels releases fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen oxides, and a host of other pollutants that penetrate deep into our lungs and bloodstream. Strikingly, these pollutants are now the highest single risk factor for disease globally, more than high blood pressure, smoking, or diabetes.
Air pollution leads to estimates as high as 10 million premature deaths every year — roughly 350,000 in the U.S. alone — and is strongly linked to heart attacks, strokes, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), adverse pregnancy outcomes and even dementia.
While the health of each of us is impacted, some feel the impacts more than others, with children, pregnant women, overburdened communities, the elderly and those with other illnesses being disproportionately affected. New Jersey residents — particularly those in historically redlined neighborhoods and communities near highways, power plants or industrial facilities — already bear the brunt of this pollution. These are the same communities often lacking access to green space, cooling infrastructure or quality health care. Environmental injustice is health injustice.
Committing to 100% clean energy now would reduce such harms dramatically. In addition to saving lives, phasing out polluting oil and gas as energy sources could save New Jerseyans up to an estimated $30 billion in health care costs thanks to the health benefits of emissions reductions. More importantly, however, are the real impacts on the everyday lives of people in our state. Clean energy is not just about reducing emissions and costs; it’s about reducing emergency room visits for asthma, lowering blood pressure in children exposed to pollution and giving vulnerable populations a fighting chance in a changing climate.
New Jersey has always gone its own way to do what is right for New Jerseyans. With the escalating attacks on clean energy nationally, time is of the essence. It’s more imperative than ever that Gov. Phil Murphy, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, Senate President Nick Scutari, and all our legislators prioritize the reintroduction and passage of 100% Clean Energy by 2035 legislation that fulfills our prior commitments to the public health and prosperity of our state.
Every New Jerseyan stands to benefit from cleaner, healthier energy. It is incumbent on each of us who cares about the health of our families, neighbors and communities to contact our lawmakers and demand they support this legislation, not only as stewards of the planet, but as guardians of public health.
Clean energy is the preventive medicine New Jersey needs. Let’s prescribe it now.