Category: Energy & Environment

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Shameless Self-Promotion: We’ve just launched NJPACE.org!

We have just launched our new website, NJPACE.org, which replaces NewJerseyPACE.org (archived here). We’ve removed most of the material dating back a dozen years to focus on the new Garden State C-PACE Program being rolled out by NJEDA. Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy—which actually covers not only the usual office, retail, and industrial, but also multifamily, agricultural, and nonprofit/institutional properties like churches, schools, hospitals, and so on—has the potential of bringing billions of dollars of investments in energy efficiency, renewables, and resiliency in the Garden State.

It’s worth revisiting some of this history if only to understand what shaped our thinking about the program over the many years we advocated for it. I first heard about PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) in 2011 from a group in California asking if we would support them in their effort to get Residential PACE accepted by the Federal Housing Financing Agency, which was working to stop it from being used with federally mortgaged housing. At the time, I was working with Fairleigh Dickinson University on small-scale hydro with a member of the New Jersey Legislature, then-Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Upendra Chivukula. Chivukula, who has a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, is now a Commissioner on NJ’s Board of Public Utilities.

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The Chilling Effect of Trump’s Climate Actions on the Climate Community

The non-governmental organizations and institutions dedicated to climate mitigation and adaptation have long been the backbone of efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, develop sustainable technologies, and build resilient communities. However, the chilling effect of Donald Trump’s climate policies has cast a shadow over this critical work, obstructing progress at a time when urgent action is needed more than ever.

Trump’s systematic dismantling of climate policies—ranging from withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement to rolling back emissions standards and cutting climate research funding—has created a hostile environment for those working in climate science, renewable energy, and environmental advocacy. With government leadership retreating, NGOs and private organizations face increased challenges in securing funding, influencing policy, and mobilizing public support for meaningful climate action.

Yet reducing global greenhouse gas emissions remains urgent. By reversing its climate policies, the U.S. is not only losing valuable time but actively accelerating the depletion of its remaining carbon budget. As climate models have long predicted, predictable climate-related disasters—wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, and sea-level rise—are arriving sooner and with greater intensity.

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Avoiding the Worst Consequences of Collapse

It’s important to take a moment in the midst of the current political turmoil to consider what‘s really at stake. What we’re seeing from the Trump White House may be a symptom of the breakdown occurring as the new Administration tries to turn back the clock in several critical areas—climate, equity, foreign aid, and public service—while pursuing global triumphalism. But the consequences of a world economy built on fossil fuels, mass consumerism, and conventional agriculture are unavoidable. We need to understand that we are in the midst of collapse, and that chaos and conflict will only accelerate it. Here’s what even ChatGPT recognizes to be the situation we face.

The Reality of Accelerating Collapse

Civilization as we know it is under immense strain. Climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification, and ocean acidification are just some of the existential crises unfolding at an accelerating pace. These environmental pressures are compounded by political instability, economic fragility, and disruptive social movements seeking to overturn the status quo. We are in the midst of what scientists and historians may come to call the most decisive decade of the 21st century. What we do—or fail to do—will determine whether the future remains habitable for humanity and countless other species Continue reading “Avoiding the Worst Consequences of Collapse”

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Ignoring the True Cost of Carbon Emissions

President Trump’s recent Executive Order (EO), titled “Unleashing American Energy,” signals a significant shift in U.S. energy policy. While the EO aims to boost domestic energy production and reduce regulatory burdens, it notably targets the concept of the social cost of carbon (SCC), calling it “logically deficient,” “poorly based in empirical science,” “politicized,” and “absent of a foundation in legislation”. This move has profound implications for our understanding of climate change and how we address it.

What is the Social Cost of Carbon?

The SCC is an economic estimate, measured in dollars, of the long-term damage caused by emitting one additional ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. It encompasses a wide range of impacts, such as:

  • Rising sea levels
  • More frequent and severe weather events
  • Reduced agricultural productivity
  • Negative health impacts

By assigning a monetary value to these harms, the SCC allows policymakers to weigh the costs of carbon emissions against the benefits of policies that reduce them. For example, if reducing emissions costs less than the SCC, then the action is economically justified. The SCC is also used to evaluate the benefits of reducing other greenhouse gasses, such as methane and nitrous oxide. Estimates of the SCC increase over time because future emissions are expected to produce larger damages as physical and economic systems become more stressed.

Why is the Social Cost of Carbon Important?

The SCC is essential for making informed decisions about energy production, infrastructure, and climate adaptation. It helps to justify investments in renewable energy and other measures that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It provides a way to evaluate the trade-offs between short-term economic gains and long-term climate costs. Without this valuation, the true cost of carbon emissions remains hidden. Continue reading “Ignoring the True Cost of Carbon Emissions”

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New C-PACE Bill Passes in New Jersey

After almost ten years of concerted advocacy, New Jersey’s C-PACE law is finally being amended to make it actually usable by municipalities and commercial property owners to limit their carbon emissions, save money, and create new jobs and opportunities in local communities. While it will still be a number of months before the NJ Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) issues rules and guidelines, the passage of the new bill (A2374/S1953) is a major milestone in NJ’s commitment to meaningful climate action.

Here’s the press release posted by New Jersey PACE and its affiliated sites yesterday:

The Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy program, already approved in 37 states and D.C., with active programs in 24 states, is headed to the Governor’s desk for signature

Trenton, N.J. — On June 24 the New Jersey Legislature approved A2374/S1953 with overwhelming, bipartisan majorities in both the Assembly and Senate. The C-PACE (Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy) bill establishes the Garden State C-PACE Program, to be developed and overseen by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA).

The bill was sponsored by Assemblyman Raj Mukherji (D-Jersey City) and Senators Bob Smith (D-Piscataway) and Kip Bateman (R-Somerset).  This represents the culmination of a ten-year effort by New Jersey PACE (NJPACE), a 501c3 nonprofit organization, to amend NJ’s unworkable 2011 PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) statute.

The legislation establishes a program that, through a municipal ordinance, allows commercial property owners to privately finance energy efficiency, renewables, and resiliency projects and repay them over time through a special assessment on the property tax bill, similar to a sidewalk or sewer assessment. These projects are 100% financed with private sector capital—no taxpayer or public monies are used.

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Possible Planet Holiday Party & Fundraiser – Saturday, Dec 14, 2019, 2-6 pm

You’re invited to our

 Join us for community, thoughtful discussion, and the opportunity to make a difference.

Saturday, December 14
2-6 p.m.
@ 8 Revere Drive, Basking Ridge, NJ

Bring something to share / BYOB
Bring your voices, instruments & holiday songs!

Meet people who care about restoring our communities and the climate.

Can’t Attend But Want to Support Us?

At the party, we’ll share our mission and initiatives, and you can contribute to the “mother ship,” Possible Planet, or earmark your donation to one of our initiatives:

Global Carbon Reward 
Ecovillage New Jersey 
Ecovillagers Alliance
New Jersey PACE / Regenerative Financing 
Possible Planet (General Fund)

 

Attend the Party

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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.

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Sounding the Alarm

New observations show that climate change is already harming us in a wide variety of ways. Possible Planet is looking at what we can do about it, from rewarding carbon capture on a global scale to refreezing the Arctic. 

Mounting Evidence of Harm to Humanity and the Biosphere

Climate change—or, as Dr. Janice Kirsh prefers to call it, climate disruption1—is already upon us. The effects are real, costly, and increasingly measurable. Amongst several other dire warnings issued near the end of 2018, the latest report of the Lancet Countdown notes that “Vulnerability to extremes of heat has steadily risen since 1990 in every region, with 157 million more people exposed to heatwave events in 2017, compared with 2000,” and “153 billion hours of labour were lost in 2017 because of heat, an increase of more than 62 billion hours since 2000.” Moreover,

The direct effects of climate change extend beyond heat to include extremes of weather. In 2017, a total of 712 extreme weather events resulted in US$326 billion in economic losses, almost triple the total losses of 2016.2

Add to this the “excess costs” of rising sea levels, and rising levels of ocean acidity; the agricultural impacts and the spread of vector-borne and water-borne diseases; and the broad range of public health impacts—and it’s clear that today’s costs and consequences alone are reason enough to sound the alarm.

But the planet also faces other imminent disasters:

  • the loss of natural habitat and biodiversity, precipitating what is widely considered “the sixth mass extinction event”
  • the widespread loss of soil fertility threatening agricultural production
  • and wars, conflicts, and mass migrations that are already being precipitated by environmental changes

Though some people are still apparently unwilling to believe that climate change is real, or that humans are the major cause of it, these very real economic and biophysical costs are of increasing concern to global policymakers, public health professionals, the insurance industry, and even the military. And ironically it’s perhaps the risk to the economy, even more than to the biosphere, that will drive a meaningful response.

Continue reading “Sounding the Alarm”

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Economics Driving the Clean Energy Revolution

The fossil fuel era, one of the principal drivers of the industrial revolution, is gradually giving way to a new energy future, one in which less energy is needed and what is needed is generated from renewable sources. Donald Trump notwithstanding, this transition is well under way, and will only accelerate in coming years, as humanity seeks cleaner sources of energy and a more harmonious relationship with nature. With the cost of renewables coming down dramatically, and the recognition of carbon pollution as a global waste management problem, more and more capital is being directed into the transition, whether it’s being invested in new solar capacity or in conservation or energy storage.

A 2016 Bloomberg report found that at least $11.4 trillion will be invested in new power-generating capacity over the next 25 years, and 60 percent of that will fund wind and solar power. And that’s just the power-generating capacity; overall, the UN estimates that $90 trillion will need to be invested in the next 15 years to meet the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the promises made in the Paris Agreement.

These are seemingly staggering numbers; the entire world economic output in 2015 was about $73 trillion. But they are also a measure one of the most profitable opportunities in the history of the planet. What we’re talking about is essentially a wholesale conversion from dirty energy to clean energy, from toxic waste to the circular economy, and the recapture of carbon from the atmosphere and the oceans in order to restore soil fertility and feed a world of ten or eleven billion people a healthier diet than most of us consume today.

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Fighting Climate Change in Donald Trump’s America

Listening to Trump’s victory speech early Wednesday morning (and much of what he has said since then) has led many to wonder if the entire election campaign was a con, and we’re now going to see a new, more humane, Donald Trump as President. “Would the real Donald Trump stand up?” is a question several pundits have begun to ask. And in his first statement after the election, President Obama noted Trump’s “new tone,” and hoped it would continue.

Here’s a key excerpt from Trump’s speech:

I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be President for all of Americans, and this is so important to me. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country.

Continue reading “Fighting Climate Change in Donald Trump’s America”