Environmental groups aren't wasting any time during this new legislative session holding a press conference today at the State House to lay out an environmental policy agenda for lawmakers including securing a 100% clean energy future and safeguarding clean drinking water among other things as senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports the event comes as state senators consider pulling State funds out of fossil fuel companies this is no longer about the fure future Generations we are dealing with climate change today a group of environmental Advocates joined with several of New Jersey's Democratic legislators today to outline their environmental agenda for the next two legislative sessions these are bold like High Reach priorities these are not easy things the goals include five key areas the first reaching 100% clean energy by 2035 a goal that's been prioritized by the Murphy Administration but never codified into law it failed to move forward during the last legislative session the energy master plan changes every time there's a new Administration it's being done by executive order and the point of this bill is to put the 100% renewable energy standard in New Jersey statute to help reach that goal Advocates emphasized the need for an upgraded energy grid to handle the state's growing solar and electric needs they made their case in front of the Senate environment and energy committee that met l in the morning the grid was built in the last century we're in now 2024 we need to build a grid for the 21st century we cannot move forward with our existing solar projects our existing storage projects without having this grid modernization other agenda items reducing Transportation pollution and preserving parks and Open Spaces they pointed to the sunsetting of the corporate business tax search charge at the end of last year that taxed companies whose profits are a million dollars or more and it was generating um $78 million a year so for open space preservation we're looking at a cut right now of $48 million this year and another priority same day voter registration not something you might expect at an environment presser but one that's integral to electing officials who will best represent communities of color most impacted by environmental justice issues says Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds Jackson I need your support for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act of New Jersey but it means nothing if we don't have those in office to make sure that we have the ability to effectuate change but getting elected officials to pass some of these measures has been a challenge two bills came up for discussion only in today's Senate hearing that might be the toughest to move forward one would have new jerseyans vote on amending the state constitution to prohibit the construction of new fossil fuel power plants in the state another would prohibit the state from investing state pension and annuity funds into any of the 200 largest public publicly traded fossil fuel companies the UN Secretary General has declared that the business model of fossil fuel companies is incompatible with human survival and that is especially true for people living and dying from fossil fuels in New Jersey's environmental justice communities like the Ironbound Carney and Camden those bills had mixed reaction with environmental advocates in support and business and industry experts opposed we should not be looking to use our Pension funds as a lever to enact a public policy you know we have a fiduciary responsibility to return as much investment as we can to our pension system um we are currently facing a 75 to 80 billion um pension deficit those bills are not yet up for a vote although several other bills focused on energy Investments did move out of committee today and many more are likely to be posted in the months to come in Trenton I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight [Music] news