By Michael Winka
Over four decades, Winka helped develop solid waste and energy policies at the NJDEP and NJBPU
One of the many accomplishments of President Jimmy Carter was he created the Department of Energy.
On August 4 1977 he signed the Department of Energy Organization Act consolidating 30 separate energy offices and functions across the federal government, in response to the oil embargos at the time – His comments on signing the Act was “we need to operate government more efficiently – if we are going to be energy independent.
On October 1 1977 he “opened” the US Department of Energy – which is why Oct 1 id EE Day.
New Jersey had a Department of Energy as a separate Department but that was subsequently reorganized a Division of Energy Conservation in BPU which was further reorganized as the Department of Environment and Energy at NJDEP and subsequently re- reorganized back to it current structure at BPU and DCA.
President Carter is the reason the US is now a net exporter of petroleum and natural gas producing more than we use for the last 3 years. He is why the US can mine natural gas from shale at such a low cost. He installed solar panels on the White House in 1979 with a goal to make 20% of our energy from solar by 2000. (New Jersey is about halfway there if you only count electricity). But he also supported making more energy with coal. Better to burn a ton of coal – he said than to support importing oil.
Of course after the election President Reagan took the solar panels down, which started making energy a political football.
He is the reason you cannot buy an inefficient refrigeration or windows of hundreds of other EE appliance today. Why building are orders of magnitude more energy efficient today.
He is the reason electricity usage has been relatively flat in New Jersey since around 2007, saving ratepayer billions on their energy cost and avoiding millions of tons of CO2.
Michael Winka
Sustainable Lawrence
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