50x30 Team August Report, 8/3/2021
Steve and Pat Miller, Co-Leaders
The team met several times in July and had ongoing email exchanges to settle on the content of a letter we intend to send to Gov. Murphy with our recommendations on steps to take to reduce GHG emissions in the state by 50% by 2030. The recommendations are the following:

• Define and codify steps required for NJ to achieve 50% GHG reduction by 2030.
• Mandate that each municipality create a 10-year energy and emissions reduction plan, with help from a state-supported resource center.
• Take rapid steps to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035.

Supporting detail and references were provided for each recommendation. The three recommendations in the letter reinforce a July 21, 2021, petition from Empower NJ to the NJ DEP.  (Empower NJ represents a coalition of 123 NJ groups, together with 58 supporting environmental groups.)  The petition requests NJ DEP adopt rules that set a 50% GHG reduction target by 2030 from 2005 levels and implement changes for achieving that reduction.
We sent a draft of the letter to Murphy’s Energy and Environment Policy Advisor, Hannah Thonet, with whom we had earlier contact, and asked for her input to clarify the letter to send to the Governor. We plan to send the letter to the Governor immediately after talking with Ms. Thonet.
The 50x30 Team plans to meet next on Thursday, August 19 at 7 pm to discuss status of the letter. We also plan individual actions for contacting our federal elected officials as part of the August Climate Action to demand “Climate Action Now” be included as part of current Congressional bills, e.g., sign a petition and/or email your legislators to go full-on GreenHouseGas reductions in the Infrastructure reconciliation bill.
The link for the August 19 meeting, 07:00 PM Eastern Time, is
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84166789343?pwd=NnlsdGNnbkVpTi9xUkRzR0F4cW5WZz09
Meeting ID: 841 6678 9343, Passcode: 780053, +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)