Green Building Law Blog

On Tuesday, Chris Christie (R) was elected as Governor of New Jersey.  His predecessor, Jon Corzine (D), instituted a number of programs through the state's administrative agencies to promote sustainable practices and green building.  So, what does this change in administration mean for green building in New Jersey, a leader among states in promoting green practices? 

Christie campaigned hard on issues like "controlling spending" and lowering New Jersey property taxes. He also proposed:

• Immediate freeze on proposed new agency rules and regulations.
• Sunset provisions for all new programs after 4 years. 

This will mean that anything in the pipeline of the administrative agencies will be frozen, and new green programs will be automatically sunsetted.

Christie seems to be pro-renewable energy, campaigning that he will:

• Renew NJ and the Choose New Jersey Energy Campaign. Consolidate all renewable energy manufacturing efforts and have New Jersey undergo a brand makeover to market and sell New Jersey’s resources to energy producers, innovators and developers.
• Incentivize energy manufacturing with tax credits. 100% of the corporate business taxes or the insurance premium tax for any wind turbine and manufacturing facility that locates in New Jersey.
• New Jersey will create higher-paying clean energy production jobs in the next four years. Commit to a 5/1 ratio of higher-paying, clean energy production jobs to lower paying, efficiency jobs. While New Jersey has one of the strongest renewable portfolio standards in the country, according to the US Energy Information Administration, the state actually ranks 43rd when it comes to generating renewable energy. 

The most interesting of these is "Commit to a 5/1 ratio of higher-paying, clean energy production jobs to lower paying, efficiency jobs." 

It is energy efficiency jobs which are predominantly blue collar, easy entry to work jobs.  And according to a recent McKinsey study, the economic and job vaue of energy efficiency has huge potential:

[B]etween 2009 and 2020, energy efficiency retrofits could generate between 500,000 and 750,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs through 2020.

Moreover, the low hanging fruit for energy savings and environmental stewardship--not to mention social equity--comes from energy efficiency, not renewable energy. According to the CleanTechies blog:

 A study done by a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist claimed that commissioning all of the nation’s commercial buildings would yield the greatest energy savings per dollar spent of any option, including wind and solar energy production. Commissioning involves fine tuning a building’s existing energy systems to improve performance and eliminate wasteful energy use.

 Hopefully, a candidate who campaigned on the concept of fiscal responsibility will realize the value of investment in energy efficiency programs before putting all of New Jersey's eggs in the renewable energy incentive basket.  Stay tuned...