The recent introduction of two new environmental-justice bills aims to protect overburdened communities from undue pollution and provide them access to clean-energy development opportunities.

The first bill (S-232) requires evaluation of environmental and public-health impacts on overburdened communities when reviewing certain permit applications, including power generation facilities.

The second (S-2484) creates within the BPU the Office of Clean Energy Equity and seeks to ensure those living in low- and moderate-income communities share in the benefits associated with ratepayer investment in the state’s clean-energy future.

Many questions need to be addressed. Among them:

• What are the practical steps to ensuring environmental justice (EJ), as well as making certain that low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities benefit from clean-energy advances in New Jersey?
• How will a 21st century clean-energy economy improve air quality and create long-term jobs for these communities?
• What needs to be done to bring community solar, expanded opportunities for reducing energy usage, and emerging technologies (such as energy storage) to these communities?
• How can community energy-planning contribute to equitable clean-energy outcomes?
• What is the utility’s role in these challenges?

At our June 30 NJ Spotlight Roundtable we explored potential paths in clean-energy development that will help realize environmental justice in New Jersey.

Opening Conversation:

U.S. Senator Cory Booker, Member U.S. Senate Committees on Foreign Relations, the Judiciary, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Environment and Public Works

John Mooney, Founding Editor, NJ Spotlight

Panelists:

Ana Isabel Baptista, Ph.D., Chair of Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management Program, Assistant Professor, Professional Practice, Director, Tishman Environment & Design Center, The New School

Maria Lopez-Nuñez, Deputy Director, Organizing and Advocacy, Ironbound Community Corp.

Dr. Nicky Sheats, Esq., Center for the Urban Environment, John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy, Thomas Edison State University; New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance

Rick Thigpen, Senior Vice President, Corporate Citizenship, PSEG (NJTV Trustee)

Moderator:

Tom Johnson, Energy & Environment Reporter, NJ Spotlight

Sponsor: