David Hutter reports for NJBIZ:
Gov. Phil Murphy has notified governors of states that belong to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative of his administration’s commitment to rejoining the regional climate-change compact.
“As a founding member of RGGI, New Jersey is eager to rejoin your state as a partner in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving the health of residents, and growing the economy in our region,” Murphy wrote in a letter sent last week to the governors of nine RGGI states in the Mid-Atlantic and New England regions.
The 2005 memorandum of understanding that established RGGI requires member states to agree to the admission of another state as a member. Murphy has instructed the Department of Environmental Protection and Board of Public Utilities to open discussions with the member states as soon as practical.
The moves come roughly a month after Murphy signed an executive order directing the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to implement the Offshore Wind Economic Development Act fully and begin the process of moving the state toward a goal of 3,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy generation by the year 2030.