Category: Clean Energy

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So The Feds Blocked Our Windmills, Funding, And May Sue Us: Still Aiming to get on Track to Meet Our Climate Change Goals: Recommendations New Jersey’s Next Governor Mostly Won’t Hear From Others

“Green Swans, in essence, are about regeneration—of our societies, economies, and, most fundamentally, of the biosphere. This is where things must now go seriously exponential, in a good way.” — John Elkington, Green Swans: The Coming Boom In Regenerative Capitalism

“The Earth is what we all have in common.” — Wendell Berry

Ecology, Economics, and Ethics (ENST-305-01)

Ramapo College of New Jersey

September 13, 2025

Professor Polsky & Students: Alex Benedetto, Kailee-Rose Casey, George Charbonneau, Romari Ebuen, Kayla Hurevitch, Kyla Merino, Jordan E. Rivera, Segall Sanchez

Editors: Professor Polsky, Romari Ebuen, Nina Rivera, Jordan E. Rivera, & Sandy Polsky

September 13, 2025

The Honorable Congresswoman Mikie Sherill

Mikie Sherrill for Governor

PO Box 43032

Montclair, NJ 07043

 

The Honorable Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli

Ciattarelli for Governor

PO Box 225

Annandale, N.J. 08801

Dear Congresswoman Sherill and Assemblyman Ciattarelli: Continue reading “So The Feds Blocked Our Windmills, Funding, And May Sue Us: Still Aiming to get on Track to Meet Our Climate Change Goals: Recommendations New Jersey’s Next Governor Mostly Won’t Hear From Others”

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Appendices: To Ramapo College Students’ Recommendations to the Next New Jersey Governor on Climate Change: Over 45 Years of My Own

 

–Cassandra

–Marcos Ribas Perez

Professor Matt Polsky

September 13, 2025

“You could pay me now or pay me later”

–Fram Oil Filters

These Appendices are my own views, as opposed to my students in the body of the Report. These sections tend to be more opinionated, based on over four and a half decades trying to promote and accelerate thinking and change on this issue.

Appendix I looks at aspects of the Rutgers Forum my class did not address.

Appendix II shows my comments about eight other related forums by NJDEP and others: the New Jersey Green Buildings Association, New Jersey Economic Development Administration (NJEDA), New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU), Rutgers Corporate Innovation Center. If needed, it can help provide a look from different angles at possible opportunities.

Appendix III is a reprint of an article from 2023, itself a compendium of earlier works, of ideas for NJDEP to consider. It offers  perspectives on how the agency, but really also other state agencies, students, and others, can approach this issue going into the future.

Appendix IV is a compendium of other articles and reports I have  been involved with over the decades. This is offered if even more ideas are needed to address climate change in the years ahead, for more explanation of earlier ideas, or in the event anyone is interested in history on this subject. Continue reading “Appendices: To Ramapo College Students’ Recommendations to the Next New Jersey Governor on Climate Change: Over 45 Years of My Own”

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April 13, 7-8 pm: Help Local Businesses Go Green—and Make Money Doing It!

Want to have a significant impact on your community’s carbon footprint?

Now there’s a simple way to do this, and—if you want—earn money doing it.

The opportunity is to present commercial property owners with a compelling case for them to save money on energy by 30% or more, from Day 1, with no out-of-pocket costs, and no debt that constrains their purchasing power.

Join us and a small, select group for Possible Planet’s “beta” test of the program.

Tuesday, April 13, 7-8 p.m.

You’ll get an overview of what’s possible, with Q&A. It’s an opportunity to join a collaborative effort to transform the commercial buildings in your community — and get paid if you choose.

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“Carbon Neutral” is Not Good Enough in Energy Master Plan

Jeff Tittel, Senior Chapter Director, NJ Sierra Club

(Reprinted from App.com with the author’s permission.)

The climate crisis is here and already impacting New Jersey. Greenhouse gas emissions globally set an all-time high last year. Our oceans are warming 40 percent faster than previously believed. The IPCC has given us 12 years before the worst climate impacts will become irreversible.

Gov. Phil Murphy’s state Board of Public Utilities recently released its Draft Energy Master Plan dealing with many issues affecting climate change and green energy. There is a growing sense of urgency to do more in combating climate impacts, but the EMP does not address natural gas.

There are things to like in the draft EMP, especially in electrifying the transportation sector and dealing with home heating. There is also a lot that’s missing, including any mention of a moratorium on fossil fuel projects.

What’s really troubling is the plan redefines clean energy as carbon neutral. This is a cynical move with major consequences. Clean energy is usually defined as wind, solar, energy efficiency, hydro and geo-thermal. Carbon neutral, by contrast, means that carbon will still be released. The definition includes natural gas, fossil fuel plants with carbon sequestration, nuclear power plants, incinerators, biomass, carbon credits and offsets. Redefining clean energy as carbon neutral will include a lot of dirty fuels. This is an Orwellian approach that sells out renewable energy by promoting natural gas and nuclear power.

Continue reading ““Carbon Neutral” is Not Good Enough in Energy Master Plan”

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New Jersey Now “Gets” Climate Change. What We Are Still Missing: A Climate Vision for Montgomery County, Maryland: Should We Be Doing This in New Jersey?: Part 6


It’s January 1, 2030.

Montgomery County, the most populous county in Maryland, was recognized today – Day 1 of the International Decade for Emergency Climate Action – by President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congress and the United Nations as the first Post Carbon(P-C) community in the United States and the largest jurisdiction on the planet to reduce its net Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions to zero, while also removing millions of tons of GHGs from the atmosphere.

The county government in partnership with its one million residents achieved this ‘moonshot’ goal through the transformation of its energy, transportation, building and agricultural systems, while strengthening the ability of its residents and businesses to withstand the increasingly frequent and severe physical and socio/economic shocks resulting from accelerating climate change.

Join me as I share how Montgomery – a wealthy, highly diverse, well-educated majority-minority community [2] – got to be a P-C community and what it now looks like. Continue reading “New Jersey Now “Gets” Climate Change. What We Are Still Missing: A Climate Vision for Montgomery County, Maryland: Should We Be Doing This in New Jersey?: Part 6”

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The Green New Deal is Now Every State’s Call to Action

Bringing the Green New Deal home

Writing in the Janesville, WI GazetteExtra, John Imes writes:

The Green New Deal resolution introduced in Congress calls for a massive U.S. mobilization over 10 years to achieve the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions while creating millions of high-wage jobs and sustainable economic growth. Unfortunately, while the science and need for federal action on climate change are clear, we can’t expect serious policymaking on the topic to come out of Washington until 2021 at the earliest.

Fortunately, it’s a new day in Wisconsin and the state is well positioned to make headway on many of the goals and objectives as outlined in the Green New Deal. For example…

Well, it’s also a new day in New Jersey, and indeed in every other state, and since we’re here, let’s do the comparison.
Continue reading “The Green New Deal is Now Every State’s Call to Action”

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New Stormwater Fees the Perfect Opportunity for PACE

[Reposted from NewJerseyPACE.org]

Combined Sewer Overflow — Jersey Water Works

February 14, 2019: NJ’s new stormwater utility bill (A2694/S1073) authorizes municipalities to collect fees on parking lots and other impervious surfaces to fund improvements to failing stormwater systems. But it has many commercial property owners concerned that they will now face significant new charges on their property. If the legislature and the Murphy Administration want to address these concerns in a meaningful way, PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) is the obvious answer.

PACE can provide 100% long-term financing for projects designed to reduce stormwater runoff by building retention systems, green roofs, and permeable paving. These improvements add to the value of the property and allow the owner to avoid some or all of the fees likely to be charged by the new utilities. When coupled with other clean energy and resiliency improvements, PACE projects are typically cashflow positive from day one. The capital is invested in the property by private lenders, but is off-balance sheet to the property owner, and the interest and other costs can often be treated as operating expenses. There is no public money involved. The municipality simply makes the Special Assessment mechanism available to the property owner, and provides a pass-through for the repayments.

Continue reading “New Stormwater Fees the Perfect Opportunity for PACE”

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New Jersey Now “Gets” Climate Change. What We Are Still Missing: Focus State Support for a Carbon Tax at the Federal Level: Part 5

By Mike Aucott[1]

The idea of putting a broadly-applied price on carbon dioxide emissions from combustion of fossil fuels from all major sectors of the U.S. economy is gaining traction. Several national organizations are actively supporting a carbon tax, including Citizens’ Climate Lobby[2], the Climate Leadership Council[3], the Carbon Tax Center[4], and PUTAPRICEONIT[5].

A number of nations and other jurisdictions already have some form of carbon pricing.  A group of Princeton University students, the Princeton Student Climate Initiative[6], is exploring ways to strengthen New Jersey’s effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions, including development of a state-level carbon tax.

While state-level programs to price carbon could be effective, carbon pricing approaches will be more effective if they are national and, ideally, international in scope.

Continue reading “New Jersey Now “Gets” Climate Change. What We Are Still Missing: Focus State Support for a Carbon Tax at the Federal Level: Part 5”

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Green Economy Podcasts — New!

Jim Cox

James A. Cox

We recently came across a series of podcasts by our personal Financial Advisor, Jim Cox. Jim focuses on sustainable investments, but we had no idea he was actively interviewing experts and activists from across the country on a variety of topics related to the emerging green economy. Jim writes, “Sometimes it feel like I’m a voice in the wilderness…” which led us to the idea of posting his podcasts for a wider audience.

James Cox is a financial advisor with FFG Advisors. He focuses on wealth and risk management for clients of the firm. He is on the board of several organizations. James joined FFG/DFP in January of 2012. Many of Mr. Cox’s clients are entrepreneurs and business owners. His practice helps individuals manage risk within their finances, even as they are striving toward creating successful companies. To learn more go to http://jamesacox.com.

The first one that came to our attention was the conversation with Janet Kirsch, a physician and public health specialist, who is devoting her life to climate mobilization.

Mobilizing for Climate Disruption (September 21, 2018)

Janet Kirsch is a physician and speaker with 350 Bay Area. We had initially talked days before hurricane Florence made landfall. We chat today about the need to approach climate disruption with increased vigor and commitment.

And here are some other selected podcasts from James Cox, available on iTunes and elsewhere.

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What We Need to Do Now about GHG Emissions in New Jersey

By Jonathan Cloud

Over the past several decades, scientists have warned us that we need to curtail further greenhouse gas emissions if we wish to keep global warming below 2°C, which many consider a major danger limit for the Earth’s climate. The latest IPCC Special Report suggests that our economy must undergo a series of rapid transformations if we are to have a chance of staying at or below 1.5°C, and going over that could have disastrous consequences for many millions of people. The global emissions trajectory we are on is clearly incapable of even slowing the rate of temperature growth and sea-level rise, and must be reduced dramatically if we are achieve even a modest extension of the time we have before the Earth hits another milestone and potential tipping point.

Both U.S. and NJ emissions have been declining since the early 2000s, and NJ actually hit its 2020 goal of bringing emissions down to 1990 levels by 2008. But reaching the next set of objectives, an 80% reduction by 2050, will be significantly harder. According to a 2017 Rutgers report, “meeting the state’s limit of an 80 percent reduction from the 2006 level by 2050 will require a 75 percent reduction from 2012 emissions.”[1] The UN estimates that global emissions overall must be trending firmly downward by 2020 (just over a year away) if we are to have any hope of staying “well under the 2°C limit,” which is the language of the Paris Accord.

Continue reading “What We Need to Do Now about GHG Emissions in New Jersey”

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