New Jersey is required by statute to

design an energy master plan every

decade the most recent master plan was

published in 1991 and has been updated

intermittently but now a new master plan

is in the works that will include clean

energy but what about less energy senior

correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports on

peril and promise the challenge of

climate change you can kill the lights

and watch the thermostat but the

committee drafting New Jersey's new

energy master plan wants big ideas about

cutting energy consumption and saving

money because as many testified the

energy that we do not use is the

cheapest form of energy the master plan

due next June will help guide New Jersey

towards governor Murphy's goal of making

Jersey a 100 percent clean energy state

by 2050 already is administration's

fostering new wind and solar power

industries and moving to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions using energy

efficiently by reducing demand is

critical but problematic

there is no meter to measure how much

energy we're saving at least not at the

state level that poses a challenge take

rebates for buying energy-efficient

appliances or installing new windows

better weatherization printing an LED

light bulbs getting you know getting rid

of the instant-on you always on TVs and

cable boxes you would reduce energy use

by 30 percent on the average home think

about that how many fewer pipelines and

power plants would we need if we did

that we can make a difference on we hear

from diverse stakeholders and Princeton

student climate initiative has taken

this mindset to heart but advocates

argued rewards for energy reduction need

to be fairly distributed not totally

focused on folks who can afford upgrades

so we challenge the BPU and all the

environmental environmentalists here in

the room everyone here in the room to

come up with approaches that will reward

the efforts that lower-income people

make to reduce their energy uses just as

much as those of higher income people

New Jersey natural gas explained its

energy audit programs don't just benefit

affluent

stammers but about 30% of the audits

that we go on to do we cannot help those

customers you know the customer is

interested we've already made the effort

to get out there because of structural

and safety issues with the premise so we

need to try to improve that another

complication the governor and lawmakers

continue to raid New Jersey's clean

energy fund to help balance the budget

and officials must convince businesses

to make their buildings energy-efficient

and do this by considering property tax

incentives for commercial buildings that

seed a specified energy efficiency score

this would require all commercial

buildings to be audited and scored using

the Energy Star program businesses can

save money by saving energy but they

need guidance his electric bill was

lower this year than last year even

though it's an air-conditioned space if

that doesn't tell you at work I don't

know what does but if I was not there to

help him walk through it as a courtesy

it wouldn't have gotten done the

committee will review all of the

comments there will be three more public

hearings on building a better energy

master plan for New Jersey the next one

scheduled for next Thursday in Trenton

I'm Brenda Flanagan NJTV news

[Music]

you