143 East State St, Suite 7, Trenton, NJ 08608

609-394-8155 (ph) 609-989-9013 (fx)

www.environmentnewjersey.org

Enactment of the Global Warming Response Act

Statement by Suzanne Leta Liou, Global Warming and Clean Energy Advocate

Contact information: (609) 394-8155 x310 or (267) 879-4285 (cell)

Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you to celebrate this momentous occasion. I am Suzanne Leta Liou, the Global Warming and Clean Energy Advocate for Environment New Jersey. Environment New Jersey, the new home of NJPIRG’s environmental work, is a non-partisan, non-profit environmental advocacy organization with over 20,000 citizen members across the state. We advocate for clean air, clean water and open spaces and we have a 30-year history of promoting and winning clean energy solutions for New Jersey.

It is my great pleasure to stand alongside Governor Corzine, Vice President Al Gore, Assemblywoman Linda Stender, and the dozens of legislators, volunteers, and coalition partners who helped make sure the passage of this ground-breaking bill became a reality.

The Global Warming Response Act is truly precedent setting. First and foremost, it is the strongest, most comprehensive cap on global warming pollution in the nation. In addition to a cap to 1990 levels by 2020, as California and Hawaii have also required, the Global Warming Response Act requires a far-reaching and critically important global warming pollution cap to 80 percent below current levels by 2050. These are levels scientists say we must achieve to avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

As I’m sure you can imagine, global warming will touch every corner of New Jersey if we don’t curb our pollution levels. In fact, the New York Metropolitan area – including the Meadowlands (where Giants Stadium sits) our ports, sections of the Turnpike, Newark airport, the Holland and Lincoln tunnels and our path trains – are particularly at risk.

The Global Warming Response Act is also precedent-setting because of groundswell of support behind it. Environment New Jersey championed this legislation with the bill’s prime sponsors, the broader environmental community, and a team of volunteers. 5,000 New Jerseyans sent emails, phone calls and petition signatures urging the Legislature to pass the bill. Our lobbying efforts signed on a bi-partisan majority of co-sponsors to the bill in both houses and resulted in the bill’s passage through five legislative committees in just six months.

We also garnered endorsement of the legislation from 150 coalition partners, including many local elected officials and businesses. New Jersey businesses know that we have the solutions available right now to achieve necessary reductions in global warming pollution. These solutions will also grow our economy by promoting investment in clean, renewable energy technologies, protect consumers from rising energy prices and preserve the environment in a multitude of ways.

What really makes the Global Warming Response Act unique, however, is that we can now tell our children and grandchildren – ages 5 to 25 and beyond – that we are tackling global warming head on.

And let me tell you, they are paying attention. For Earth Day this year, hundreds of students from across the state submitted essays about why global warming is a problem, and what we can do about it. They told the stories we hear in the news about polar bears in danger and our shore under water. Even more significant was their optimism. They wrote about how we can address global warming with a host of clean technologies available today – everything from hybrid cars, solar paneled roofs, energy efficiency, mass transit and wind turbines.

We owe it to our children and grandchildren to require far-reaching reductions of our global warming pollution and to think big about solutions. After all, they are doing it already.

We also owe it to our country. By enacting the Global Warming Response Act, New Jersey is providing a recipe for success for elected officials across the nation. In fact eight other states – Washington, Maryland, Oregon, New Mexico, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts – are also seriously considering similar legislation.

Today, we’re setting the stage for immediate action and long-lasting change. We aren’t waiting for the Bush Administration or Congress to take action. We can solve global warming, and New Jersey is leading the way.