CHIVUKULA & BEGLEY JR. DECLARE 'GREEN JOBS' AS PATHWAY TO RECOVERY

CHIVUKULA & BEGLEY JR. DECLARE 'GREEN JOBS' AS PATHWAY TO RECOVERY

(SOMERSET) - Assemblyman Upendra J. Chivukula joined actor and activist Ed Begley Jr. on Sunday to declare "green jobs" as a key path toward economic recovery.

Chivukula (D-Somerset), the Assembly Telecommunications and Utilities chairman, introduced Begley at the PSE&G GreenFest in Somerset.

"Like millions of other Americans, I too have been inspired by Ed Begley's long-standing activism for the environment when it was not as popular as it is now," Chivukula said.

Chivukula sponsored New Jersey's landmark Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative that sets a mandatory caps on emissions of carbon dioxide - a greenhouse gas - from power plants.

Bagley described the defining moment in his passion for the environment, first to Chivukula and then to the hundreds gathered to hear him speak.

"It was in 1970 during the very first Earth Day," Begley said. "We had already seen the Cuyahoga River catch fire in 1969. I don't know about you, but I don't think rivers are supposed to catch fire. They're supposed to put out fires. And, then there was the matter of growing up in smoggy California. So, I decided to do something about the environment. I started recycling. I started composting. I rode my bike. I rode the bus. I bought an electric car. Since then, there has been no looking back."

"When Ed shared with me the defining moment in his passion for the environment, his words resonated because I too was motivated by the growing smog and pollution from our state's power plants to author the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative," Chivukula said. "From the White House to the State House, from global summits to the grassroots, we are seeing an emerging commitment to go-green that is best demonstrated in the hundreds of millions of dollars in the federal stimulus and the Energy Master Plan to fund projects that will generate green jobs for New Jersey. Green jobs are the pathway to recovery."  
 
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