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An impressive group of energy leaders and New Jersey stakeholders gathered Tuesday for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association’s (NJBIA) Third Annual Energy Conference.

NJBIA noted that the annual event, held Oct. 10 at the Pines Manor in Edison, comes at a critical time for Garden State businesses and residents given the ample energy and climate challenges we face, as well as the Murphy’s administration ambitious goals and efforts to decarbonize the state and its economy.

“This event will feature a really complete array of energy and economic experts that will help bring clarity and context to some very timely and important questions,” NJBIA Deputy Chief of Government Affairs Ray Cantor said in the lead-up. “This event will provide ample opportunity to discuss the current state of climate science, the risks of acting and of not acting, as well as the upgrades to our energy grid and other potential energy solutions to help New Jersey reduce emissions.”

The conference, which is still ongoing as of press time, features a slew of speeches, panel discussions, awards, networking opportunities, and so much more.

Former PSEG Chairman and CEO Ralph Izzo; former Senate President Steve Sweeney; and state Sen. Bob Smith, D-17th District, chairman of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, are receiving awards for their leadership in the energy and environmental sectors.

Additionally, newly minted New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) President Christine Guhl-Sadovy will make her first public comments to the state business community since succeeding the late BPU President Joseph Fiordaliso.

NJBIA President and CEO Michele Siekerka opened her remarks Tuesday morning by acknowledging Fiordaliso.

“Before we get underway, we are going to have a moment of silence for an extraordinary gentleman, who I think we were all a little bit shocked when we lost our BPU President Joe Fiordaliso,” said Siekerka. “For anyone who had the opportunity or benefit to work with Joe Fiordaliso over the years – you knew what an extraordinary man he was. He was very open to good discussion. He always engaged. He had an open ear and open heart. He always had a smile on his face.”

Siekerka noted while the NJBIA might not have always agreed with the policy outcomes, she complimented Fiordaliso’s ability to have good public discourse about how to move forward in a more measured way.

As she kicked things off, Siekerka remarked about how prescient the timing of this energy conference was, given the frightening things going on in the world today.

“The impacts and consequences that all those geopolitical aspects can have on how we live, work, raise a family, and play here in the State of New Jersey,” said Siekerka as she introduced Cantor.

“The focus of today’s conference is to talk about our clean energy goals and is there a realistic way to meet those goals,” said Cantor. “There’s no doubt that we have to decarbonize. The real question is, how do we do it? In what time frame can we do it? And what is it going to cost?

“We have some speakers here today who will tell you exactly how we can meet our net zero goals by 2050. We have some speakers here who will tell you that we need a longer time frame – that fossil fuels will be here for decades to come, and it is going to be a slower transition than many are pushing, especially our policymakers. We have some here today who will talk about the need for not rushing to allow certain technologies to advance – so we don’t make the wrong decisions by trying to do too much too soon. And we have other speakers here today who will tell us that maybe we have the wrong focus – maybe we should be looking more at adaptability, low-hanging fruit, and allow a longer time frame for our transition,” Cantor said.

Some of the speeches and panel discussions included exploring innovations for our energy future; New Jersey’s energy future; the future of fossil fuels and gas utilities; thermal energy storage at Princeton University; decarbonization and the grid; climate uncertainty and risk; the status of New Jersey’s wind industry; the future of nuclear energy; decarbonization and transportation; realistic decarbonization perspectives; and more.

Stay tuned for additional coverage from the energy conference in an upcoming issue of NJBIZ, with more details on some of the ground covered and key takeaways.