NEWS & RESOURCES

Governor Murphy says NJ will target 100% clean energy 15 years ahead of schedule

by | Mar 1, 2023 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Gov. Phil Murphy seems to have taken losing his “Greenest Governor” title last month to heart. He announced Wednesday during a speech at Rutgers University that he intends to move his clean energy goal up by 15 years.

Making the target for 100% clean energy 2035, instead of 2050, was one of the six environment-related actions Murphy said he plans to take. One of the other major plans he announced would require new vehicles in 2035 to have zero emissions.

Murphy said he will sign an executive order making the clean energy change and will pair it with support for a clean electricity standard to “ensure that every kilowatt of electricity that is sold in New Jersey comes from a clean source,” according to his office.

Murphy also said he’d sign an executive order to put a target on building electrification — with the goal of 400,000 residential spaces and 20,000 commercial spaces — by 2030, including both retrofits and new buildings. That would account for about 10% of the state’s building stock, he said.

Another executive order will direct the Board of Public Utilities to start looking into what the future of natural gas utility will look like in New Jersey. Administration officials said that this is a planning process with input from utilities, labor groups and environmentalists to plan what the shift away from fossil fuels will look like and what impact it will have on utilities in the state.

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