N.J.'s clean-energy advocates fear job losses

Last week, when Gov. Chris Christie froze unspent funds in many agency budgets to cover the state’s $2.2 billion shortfall, he appropriated $158 million from New Jersey’s Clean Energy Fund, the engine behind one of the few bright spots in New Jersey’s economy, the renewable energy industry. Advocates of the Clean Energy Program, which is administered by the Board of Public Utilities, say losing the $158 million could result in lower grant and rebate amounts this year, endangering thousands of jobs and setting back the state’s solar industry, the largest in the country after California.
“If they lower the rebates, projects could be canceled,” said Dolores Phillips, executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Industries Association. “It will undermine our ability to do business.”
In a further blow to the Garden State’s struggling economy, loss of the money would remove as much as $800 million in economic activity, according to the State Senate Environment and Energy Committee, which uses a factor of five in calculating the program’s economic impact.
Christie directed the Treasury Department earlier this month to freeze $158 million of the program’s funds, saying the money had not been committed to projects and was just sitting in the account. He reiterated that position Thursday during a meeting with business leaders in Burlington County.   read more