1. Show that New Jersey already has hundreds of established renewable energy companies working towards the targeted goals for electricity of 12% from renewable sources and 5% from increased efficiency in just 11 years, and can do even more if the bill is crafted correctly. (The opposition argues that green energy will take way too long to pursue.)
2. Show the media and NJ’s congressional delegation that with incentives offered by the Waxman-Markey Energy to reach that target will generate hundreds/thousands of new jobs in New Jersey alone.
3. Show that without federal incentives in the bill, the US will not reach the target 17%, those new jobs will not be created and the economy will not grow.
The event was a great success. At 10:00am about 50 people were seated in Room 104 listening to the presentation and ready to ask questions.
The speakers from the four companies we selected for this event were very eloquent and very clear in describing some of the current challenges they have to overcome. We all got a great picture on how these challenges can affect clean energy companies’ growth potential, their ability to create new jobs, and the opportunity to steer this country towards a clean energy economy and a renewable energy revolution.
Jacquie Germany – Nina’s Nuances Jacquie Germany, President of Nina's Nuances Interior Design, Inc,
[1] opened the event describing her business which delivers green and sustainable interior and exterior design services to commercial and residential clients in New Jersey and New Y
ork. With the support of a thorough PowerPoint presentation, she showed us an example of her work, a kitchen renovation that includes green and sustainable solutions. Jacquie also talked extensively about the new ACES bill, illustrating all its major points and educating us on some of the major issues that this bill will address. She commented on how this bill, together with some of the provisions contained in the Stimulus Package approved earlier this year, would open new doors for small clean businesses such as hers to really start expanding and play a major role in assisting homeowners, landlords and developers and help them make green and sustainable choices for their buildings. Helping companies like hers to expand means help creating new jobs for people who might have lost their job but have been retrained to retrofit residential and commercial building using new green standards.
Mariano Molina – MDM,PC Mariano Molina, President of MDM, PC – a CSA Group Company,
[2] and an Architecture and Design firm for green buildings, including LEED certified projects - talked about innovative ways to design buildings that take advantage of natural resources and minimize impact on the environment and human health. He showed pictures of t
he Joao S. Antao Public School #31 Early Childhood Center in Elizabeth, NJ, a project that received the 2008 ACEC Design Excellence Award. The building was designed employing “Green” building principles that employ environmentally responsible design, and construction practices were used such as passive and active solar energy, photovoltaic and geothermal heat pump systems, SMART START. He illustrated how by designing a hallway that slices through the building, they were able to get natural light to every room thus cutting down on the consumption of electricity. He explained how each room is individually ventilated, without using a system that circulates the same air throughout the building. This new single room ventilation will decrease the spreading of diseases in the school environment, something that has come to the attention of us all with the spread of swine flu. Mariano talked about how the new ACES bill should provide more funding for more public projects like this, allowing clean energy companies to expand and create new jobs.
Vijay Israni, President of 3rd Rock Systems & Technologies, Inc,[3] a company that focuses on proven renewable energy technologies such as solar photovoltaics, fuel cells and hydrogen generation systems, gave a wonderful presentation on his company and their projects. 3rd Rock Systems installed the solar photovoltaic systems we visited at Stevens Institute. The company uses an innovative financial mechanism, known as a power purchase agreement or a PPA, to provide clean solutions with immediate and long-term benefi
ts, from both an economic and environmental perspective, to residential, commercial and government entities. Under a PPA, 3rd Rock Systems and Technologies maintains and operates the solar installations, thus overcoming the major challenge of a solar system initial cost to the consumer, and then sells the generated electricity to the consumer where the project is installed, or to utilities companies. Vijay explained that his company has projects 20 times bigger than the one at Stevens Institute in the works but now those projects have come to a stop due to the current market conditions. It
is difficult for many project developers to find financing due to the current economic conditions and this has severely undermined clean energy providers. The Stimulus Package and now the ACES bill should supply enough incentives to stimulate investments in clean energy companies. The incentives should go from being tax incentives to being direct grants, and those grants should go to the installers, rather than the financers. Only taking these and other meaningful measures will allow clean energy companies to expand, finance new projects and create more jobs, leading the way for a new renewable energy revolution and our nation to became a leader in creating new sources of clean energy.
Rob Ashmore, President of AeonSolar LLC,
[4] a company which also provides residential and commercial solar installations in New Jersey, followed the lead of other speakers and expanded on the significance of the ACES bill provisions for small and larger clean energy companies. He explained that the cost of solar power has decreased dramatically over the past 10 years and payback time for solar is now quicker than people thought (4 years residential; 6 to 7 years commercial). At the same time, rates for utility power continue to rise. With the help of rebates, tax credits and “green credits”, it can now cost less to power a residential or commercial property with clean, abundant energy from the sun than with electricity supplied by a utility company. His company helps clients navigate through the maze of incentives, permits, rules and regulations, to help them install the best possible system for their needs. He strongly advocated the need to simplify the incentives’ system to make it more mainstream and appealing to all those people interested in joining the clean energy user community, and to reduce the bureaucratic burden on installers. Also, while many people and businesses are interested in implementing a Solar Energy system, they are nervous about adding to their debt in the uncertain economy. Finally, to reach the mainstream consumer, more education on the benefits of renewable energy and energy efficiency is required.
Geothermal energy for the home David Goldsholl, owner of ENRGi Eastern Natural Resource Group Inc,
[5] was supposed to join our panelists group and talk about his company which offers geothermal heating and cooling systems for residential and commercial buildings, but unfortunately at the last minute he could not get to the meeting. So MoveOn member Andy Velwest shared what he new about geothermal systems, which are according to David from ENRGi, the “sle
eping giant of renewable energy movement” because geothermal cuts the costs of heating and cooling, the biggest energy expense in any building: commercial or residential. Mariano Molino, of MDM, PC, continued explaining how a geothermal system works and what benefits it offers. Geothermal systems use the earth relatively constant temperature to provide heating, cooling, and hot water for homes and commercial buildings. Geothermal system use water or antifreeze solution which gets circulated through plastic pipes buried beneath the earth's surface. During the winter, the fluid collects heat from the earth and carries it through the system and into the building. During the summer, the system reverses itself to cool the building by pulling heat from the building, carrying it through the system and placing it in the ground. This process creates free hot water in the summer and delivers substantial hot water savings in the winter. Geothermal systems are very
environmentally friendly, they conserve natural resources by providing climate control efficiently and thus lowering emissions; minimize ozone layer destruction by using factory-sealed refrigeration systems, which will seldom or never have to be recharged; and use underground loops to transfer heat, with no external venting and no air pollution.
A very lively and interesting Questions and Answer session followed the speakers’ presentation raising more awareness about the ACES bill, rebates, tax credits and “green credits” already available, and how the general public can help push for legislations that really support a clean energy economy.
The Q&A sessions was followed by a tour of the impressive and very creative solar installations that 3rd Rock Systems and Technologies built at Stevens Institute.
Overall during the day we saw and heard great examples of local innovation and expertise that really illustrate the clean energy economy. We thank all our speakers for taking the time to join us in this initiative and special thanks also go to Sylvia Schwartz, of Schwartz Marketing who does marketing and PR for green companies, and provided invaluable help in organizing this event.
America’s economy is in crisis, and we are feeling it right here in New Jersey a
nd as President Obama said in his speech at Nellis Air Force base in Las Vegas a few days ago, “... We have to lay a new foundation for prosperity...and a renewable energy revolution is part of that foundation....... So we've got a choice. We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, sending our money and our wealth away, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy. We can hand over the jobs of the future to our competitors, or we can confront what they've already recognized as the great opportunity of our time: The nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st-century global economy.”
So let’s show our support for this clean energy economy and for these companies that do an amazing job against many odds and can change our future for the better. Congress is currently considering the ACES bill which has the potential to start us on the path to a new energy economy. But Big Oil and Big Coal are working hard to keep us reliant on dirty energy for decades to come.
We ask you to contact your Senators and Congressman to urge them to lead the nation and serve their constituents by working to strengthen the bill so it creates clean energy jobs here in New Jersey, with more money-saving energy efficiency and more reliance on cleaner, cheaper sources of energy like wind and solar.
It's important to let our elected officials know that we support the WAXMAN-MARKEY ENERGY BILL. If they know that their constituents support it, they'll be more likely to keep fighting for it. Plus, other senators and congressmen who are on the fence will take notice, too.
For Congress representatives contact information please log onto our co
uncil’s website at:
http://tinyurl.com/JC-H-Councilor our blog at: http://jerseycity-hoboken-moveon.blogspot.comMoveon.Org/Jersey City/Hoboken Council
www.moveon.org e-mail: jc.h.council@gmail.com
For a summary of the current version of the ACES bill please go to:
http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php - scroll to the announcement on May 15th that has the latest info on the Bill, including a Summary or
http://apolloalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/apollo-summary-of-waxman-markey-bill-041009-3.pdf - has a very quick reference summary 
