Department of Environmental Protection Can Improve Climate Pollution Plans, Deliver More Benefits for Families and Businesses

Trenton, NJ. - The New Jersey Sierra Club submitted public comments to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regarding the critical improvements that must be made to the plans for reducing climate pollution in the state. The Sierra Club’s comments were submitted in response to DEPs stakeholder meetings on climate pollution in New Jersey. The DEP started a modeling and planning process last month for reducing climate pollution consistent with the state’s Energy Master Plan. 

In order for New Jersey to properly address the urgent threat the climate crisis poses to communities across the state, DEP must use the most up-to-date science and technology and incorporate the most comprehensive measure of climate pollution available.

DEP’s current model uses an outdated standard of a 100 year time period to calculate climate pollution. However, the climate crisis is moving at an alarming rate, far faster than scientists initially expected and DEP needs to adjust to this reality by recalculating all past, current, and future greenhouse gases based on a 20 year time period. In addition, the model also needs to account for the loss of land and use development patterns in order to accurately understand it’s effect on carbon sequestration.

In 2019, New Jersey enacted the Global Warming Response Act, making a commitment to reduce greenhouse gases by 80% from a baseline year 2006 by 2050, but DEP’s current efforts are far off track since the underlying modeling fails to incorporate emissions from all sources. The DEP’s model must improve monitoring and auditing mechanisms for emissions from leaky pipes and other unintended releases of gasses from industrial use, especially methane given it's powerful heat-trapping properties. Doing so is essential to meeting our greenhouse gas pollution targets and reducing pollution in high traffic urban communities that disproportionately suffer from the negative effects of high levels of pollution.

In response, Director of New Jersey Sierra Club Jeff Tittel released the following statement: 

“Using the best science to develop strong and effective rules for reducing climate pollution will create jobs, grow the economy, and improve public health. New Jersey families and businesses have already suffered from the consequences of climate disruption, so we have to act now to cut climate pollution to keep things from getting worse. We need to eliminate methane, black carbon, and other damaging climate pollutants, not just carbon dioxide, and phase out old and leaky gas infrastructure. Communities that have been overburdened by these pollutants for decades need to be at the front of the line for the benefits of reducing pollution and investing in a clean energy economy.”