Recently, the State of New Jersey released its draft 2019 Environmental Management Plan (EMP), which aims to achieve 100 percent carbon neutral electricity generation and maximum transition to electrification of the building and transportation sectors by 2050. In addition to these goals, New Jersey also intends to reduce GHG emissions to meet the New Jersey Global Warming Response Act (GWRA) GHG limits. GWRA’s 2050 target requires that New Jersey reduce GHG emissions by 80 percent from 2006, which is equivalent to 25.4 million metric tons (MMT) of carbon dioxide. Doing so in the most cost effective and beneficially economic way is critical to the state, which will be considering the entirety of its energy demand. Part of New Jersey’s plan is to reduce carbon by incentivizing:
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The deployment of renewable generation;
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Carbon neutral distributed energy resources;
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Upgrades to the grid that handles variable electricity loads; and
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Decreased energy demand through efficiency and conservation measure.
The full draft 2019 EMP can be accessed here.