Diehard high school baseball fan and possible 2012 presidential candidate Chris Christie announced yesterday that he is scaling back New Jersey's goals for renewable energy from powering 30% of the state's electricity by 2021 down to 22.5 percent, saying "we wanted to put forward a document that was responsible and achievable." It's like when you're on a diet, and your goal is to lose 40 pounds—OK OK bad analogy. It's like when you have this private helicopter that you know you shouldn't use but it's just so damn fast and cool looking, you can't help it!
Christie's move comes weeks after the governor withdrew his state from a state-sized version of cap and trade, citing the burden of extra taxes it inflicted on businesses. The Times reports that Christie's new goals include "more emphasis on electricity powered by natural gas," and he claims that he's not abandoning solar or wind power. But if New Jersey is "second only to California in solar power capacity," why set the bar lower? As one Senate Democrat says "if you make the numbers more aggressive, you're going to see more renewables."
Renewables schrenewables: lets hope this move makes people money, right? A spokesman for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce said that it's "business-friendly…in a state like New Jersey, we need everything on the table." Yes, everything but rigid forward-thinking standards. Helicopter rides for everyone!
