New Jersey must be informed by climate science facts when planning development, state Acting Commissioner of Environmental Protection Shawn M. LaTourette said at the NJSBA 2021 Annual Meeting.
Sea level is rising at a greater rate in New Jersey than any other place on the planet, LaTourette said during the session “The DEP Commissioner Speaks on the Climate Crisis: The Unique Risks That New Jersey Faces From Climate Change and How the Murphy Administration Is Responding.” The scientific projections for the Garden State are stark, predicting a 2-foot increase by 2050 and a 5-foot increase by 2100.
Under the 2007 Global Warming Response Act that was updated in 2019, the DEP is developing recommendations on how to reduce emissions by 80% in 2050, after promoting natural gas plants to help hit the goal of reducing emissions by 20% of 2006 levels by 2020, he said.
Supporting electric vehicle use is a DEP priority, given that 40% of emissions are from transportation sources, especially personal automobiles. Another state Energy Master Plan priority is to reduce energy consumption and emissions from the building sector, LaTourette said.
LaTourette acknowledged there is a balancing act in implementing these and other strategies, as it is important to use existing structures to maintain resiliency in a crisis and transition to renewable energy sources in a thoughtful way.
State Sen. Bob Smith (D-Piscataway), NJSBA past President Thomas H. Prol of Sills Cummis & Gross PC, DEP Chief Resilience Officer and Assistant Commissioner Climate and Flood Resilience David Rosenblatt, and New Jersey Ørsted Head of Government Affairs & Policy Madeline Urbish also spoke on the panel.