Stender reaffirms commitment to the environment and slowing climate change

April 22, 2008

SCOTCH PLAINS – As her Republican opponents continue to attack each other and run negative campaigns of personal destruction, Linda Stender today celebrated the 38th anniversary of Earth Day by highlighting her continued commitment to smart environmental policies that will protect our earth for future generations.

“While my Republican opponents continue to run negative attacks against each other and against me, I’ve been listening to the concerns of New Jersey families all across the 7th District,” said Stender, Democratic candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th District. “Everyday I hear from Democrats, Republicans and Independents that they are tired of the partisan bickering, that they want a leader who will change Washington and get our country back on the right track after the failed policies of the Bush administration. Earth Day symbolizes the hope that we can work together to provide a cleaner, greener world for future generations.”

“In Congress, I’ll work to invest in renewable energies so we can transform our economy and end our dangerous dependence on foreign oil and bring down gas prices; support policies that protect our natural resources and maintain our precious open spaces,” Stender added. “I will fight to mandate policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions so we can slow global warming and worldwide climate change. As a new grandmother, I am more committed than ever to fighting for the changes needed to ensure my granddaughter’s generation inherits the same endless possibilities that my grandmother’s generation left me.”

Stender wrote New Jersey’s landmark Global Warming Response Act, which established the strictest and most extensive mandatory limitations on global warming emissions in the nation. The legislation requires the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to establish a greenhouse gas emissions monitoring and reduction program to reduce global warming emissions produced in New Jersey to 1990 levels by 2020, approximately 20% below current levels. She also fought for passage of the Clean Cars Act and supported efforts to bring clean alternative energy sources to New Jersey. Without increasing taxes, New Jersey now provides nearly $145 million annually in financial incentives to residential customers, businesses, schools and municipalities to install energy-efficient and renewable energy technologies.