New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's Nuclear Plan To Ruin New Jersey

Wednesday’s hearing at the Statehouse Annex, in Trenton, illuminates how completely the governor reneged on his campaign promises. This will be the second of three hearings on the latest update to New Jersey’s Energy Master Plan (EMP). In 2008, then-governor Jon Corzine (D)—who Christie named a “phony” on environmental issues—issued an EMP update requiring that 30 percent of the state’s energy be generated from renewables by 2021. Christie’s revision ratchets the commitment down by 22.5 percent. He claims the more ambitious target is unachievable, although by 2020 California and Colorado are on track to meet goals similar to Corzine’s plan.

“This is a total about-face and a broken promise to the people of New Jersey,” says Matt Elliott of Environment New Jersey. “Unfortunately, the list goes on and on when it comes to this governor.” New Jersey’s environmental groups are struggling to contain the damage, immediately through pushback at the EMP hearings and with coalition building and media pressure for the long game.

In Christie’s 2011 draft of the Energy Master Plan [PDF], most of New Jersey’s solar capacity sprang up in the last three years under the aegis of “state subsidy” programs. Christie recommends abruptly ending them. “The Christie administration does not support the unreasonable transference of wealth from ratepayers….to solar developers,” the EMP plan reads. But solar energy is cheaper than natural gas, which will be heavily subsidized by the plan, and will soon be vastly cheaper than nuclear energy. (Christie has hinted that he may now support a new nuclear plant for the state, a $10 billion endeavor.) Solar energy installations can be built very quickly, and feature no negative externalities once they are in operation, something few other energy sources can claim.

State environmental groups have made common cause with the fledgling solar energy industry to combat Christie’s plan. Both groups are relying on a strong presence at the hearings to air their grievances, along with a media campaign to maintain pressure on the governor. Their success is by no means guaranteed, but Christie seems to feel the pinch as evidenced by a press release last week, clearly meant to fortify his environmental bona fides.

“Governor Christie’s Continued Commitment to Renewable Energy,” the presser reads, making no mention of Christie’s efforts to reduce those same renewable energy commitments. “They are certainly feeling pressure to spin what they are doing in a way that is seen as supportive of renewable energy,” says Mark Kresowik, regional director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign.

But the first hearing, which was held last Tuesday in Newark, did not allow the environmental groups much room to maneuver. With roughly 200 people in attendance, commentators ranged from natural gas industry representatives to interested citizens. But industry representatives were allowed to speak first and longest.

“It was a clear attempt to front-load the hearing with people who were supporters,” says Christine Guhl of the Sierra Club. “They were allowed to speak first and were given a much longer time. Most people who came from the public had to wait five hours to speak and then were limited in their comments because time was running out.”