Chris Cristie, “everyone” says, is a smart politician. When I read that he claimed to be staking out a peculiarly “republican’ approach to climate change, I was optimistic, since he at least had enough courage to state the obvious, that it’s a problem, and we have to deal with it.
Well, (note to self ) – these guys will have a hard time overcoming the “bow to big energy” reflex, even this late in the game. Now the Times reports Christie has shown the remainder of his hand, by calling for a pullback in the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, to a more “achievable” level.
The revision sets the amount of electricity to be obtained from renewable sources like solar or wind power at 22.5 percent by 2021, down from 30 percent. It also puts more emphasis on electricity powered by natural gas; the state is already seeking to build three new gas plants.
Christie had bracketed his acknowledgement of climate science by pulling New Jersey out of the 10 state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which is a group of northeastern states moving to set a price on carbon and encourage renewable energy.
Joe Romm shows how this was a blatant ideological “cut nose to spite face” maneuver, since the RGGI has actually been creating value in the New Jersey economy. It is, regrettably, incumbent on tea-party-bound GOP politicians to sabatoge effective action on climate and energy if it does not come with approval from the party’s cro-magnon wing.
With the latest announcement, Christie modifies his climate position from, “We have an obligation to reduce our greenhouse emissions..” to ” I have an obligation to make sure I don’t look as crazy as Sarah “I love the smell of emissions” Palin when I run in 2016″.
yeah. That’s what I thought. But then, I’m from New Jersey.