The Oil Drum

Earlier this Summer, New Jersey passed landmark, ground-breaking legislation that will put an economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions to bring emissions down to 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below 2005 levels by 2050.

The bill’s implementation is in the hands of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). The department, in conjunction with other state agencies, must develop a pollution monitoring and reporting program by January 2009, a plan to achieve the 2020 limit by no later than June 2008, and a plan to achieve the 2050 limit no later than June 2010. Solutions to cut pollution levels are expected to focus on reducing the state’s energy consumption and shifting to clean, renewable sources of energy in the transportation and electricity sectors – the two largest sources of global warming pollution in the state.

This is not just because some legislators got a good idea in their head and moved forward on their own. But rather this is the outcome of a concerted effort by a coalition of the state's environmental groups called the NJ Climate Change March as part of the larger Step It Up 2007 campaign led by Bill McKibben to force the legislature's hand on the last day of their session. As Mr. McKibben said at a lecture I attended a couple of months ago: "Politicians are like windvanes...it's up to us to make the wind blow."

From the video above it is clear that this is not just about New Jersey taking responsibility and action in it's own backyard, but this is squarely aimed at impacting policy at the national level and ultimately the global agenda. Without a clear national plan to reduce CO2 levels, it seems that more cities and states will join up and take action.

Scranton Rail Station

New York City boasts one of the nation's best, if not the best and most extensive regional rail systems connecting Manhattan to major hubs in Long Island, Westchester, Fairfield County Connecticut through the Metropolitan Transit Authority and almost all of the major cities and towns in New Jersey through NJ Transit and the PATH trains. From there, rail connections can be made to Amtrak connecting to the rest of the Northeast Corridor and beyond. However, there are many small cities and towns that used to be connected to the national and regional rail network that served as regional hubs for transportation that were cut-off as automobiles became the dominant form of intercity travel. Their populations drifted to the hinterland and municipalites lost their core.

But now, with the green light for the new Trans Hudson Tunnel and as gas prices have increased, small towns & cities across the region are attempting to reconsolidate their former importance as regional centers of commerce and population, restoring regional rail. Starting with Scranton