NJ and the RGGI

                                            NJ and the RGGI

By Albert B. Kelly

For a time in the past, I didn’t give much thought to climate change. It’s not that I didn’t think it important, it’s just that the whole subject seemed so remote and distant from the everyday problems and struggles we faced on the ground here in the greater Bridgeton area, Cumberland County and throughout South Jersey. Somewhere along the way, the issue became more about politics and the media than about science and data and I suspect we may be on the verge of paying a big price for this shift in emphasis.

But these days, climate change, global warming and everything that comes with these don’t seem that remote anymore. So long as climate change seemed abstract with the consequences way off in the fat part of the 21^st century, we could avoid thinking about it and taking any sort of concrete action. But now we wake up each day and it is 2018 and we’re about to jump into the fat part of the 21^st century- we’re a long way from early 1990’s.

That’s why I was pleased and greatly encouraged by the news recently that Governor Murphy has pledged his support for a bill making its way through the legislature that would bring New Jersey back into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or RGGI. We were part of this regional “cap-and-trade” market back in 2009 when it was first created, but former governor Chris Christie pulled us out anticipating the 2012 presidential cycle and we’ve been sidelined ever since.

In addition to what we’re working on here, Virginia is also considering legislation that would have them join the RGGI and according to “Inside Climate News”, if both states were to join this would grow the size of the carbon market by upwards of 40% beyond what it is currently. This matters because prior to leaving the RGGI, New Jersey got roughly $50 million a year in cap-and-trade monies to use on clean energy and technology.

No one knows how much New Jersey might get these days in cap-and-trade revenue, but it would most likely be more than the $50 million we got back 2009. We need these resources because the effects of climate change are no longer abstract or far into the future- they are here now. The effects will get awfully personal if they haven’t already, especially for our local farmers, everything from crop damage via more severe storms and changes in soil quality, to new bacterial threats and inconsistent growing seasons. This in turn hits the local economy hard and on and on it goes.

Of course coming out of the brutally cold weather we just had in late December and early January, I heard more than one person dismiss global warming pointing to the record-breaking temps in a few spots as proof that it’s all a big hoax. What they miss is the fact that global warming means extreme events- including extreme cold events- even as we’re noting the past 5 years as the warmest on record.

But even if some wished to debate the issue, my question to all sides of the argument would be this: what is the price if you’re wrong? For those that believe climate change and global warming are real, the consequences if they are wrong include wasted tax monies and unnecessary regulations. But for those who believe it’s all just a big hoax, the consequence of being wrong is a world our great grandchildren won’t easily inhabit.

That’s why we need to do what we can now to lower carbon emissions and get a handle on this thing before we reach that point of no return. In light of all the things Washington DC isn’t doing to help, it’s good to see states and localities coming together to take a stand and provide what’s missing- it’s the way our system was designed to work.

While the political side of the debate will go on as it must, our state and more particularly our region, can certainly put the revenues generated by cap-and trade to good use benefitting our agricultural industry by employing more sustainable practices and developing new “green” technologies. Beyond that, our very quality of life over the long haul will benefit from lowering carbon output across the board.

And not for nothing, but we’ve always been able to get more done working together than alone, whether we’re talking about people, communities, or states joining together through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.