CHESTER, NJ, September 8, 2009 – Conservation Resources Inc. (CRI) in conjunction with Elizabethtown Gas, today announced four inaugural grant awards totaling $25,000 to three non-profit conservation organizations and a local government to undertake restoration projects that will sequester carbon under an innovative Carbon Sequestration and Restoration Small Grant Program. "This exciting new small grant program provides non-profit organizations and local communities with an opportunity to address climate change with direct action - now.” said Michael Catania, President of Conservation Resources Inc.
This new Carbon Sequestration and Restoration Small Grant
Program provides funding to non-profits and local governments
to undertake land restoration projects that demonstrate carbon
sequestration and/or avoid greenhouse gas emissions. In so
doing, it also helps to create pilot projects where the amount
of carbon sequestered can be measured and monitored, as a
means of demonstrating the efficacy of restoration as a way
of reducing and offsetting green house gas emissions.
"We are very pleased to partner with Conservation Resources Inc. and provide matching funding for this innovative program” said Donald Carter, Vice President and General Manager of Elizabethtown Gas.
“Together, we can help non-profits and local governments by providing an incentive to implement substantial and verifiable contributions towards reaching New Jersey’s laudable goals for greenhouse gas reductions.”
With the enactment of the “Global Warming Response Act” on July 6, 2007, New Jersey became only the third state in the nation to mandate greenhouse gas reduction by law. The legislation mandated the reduction of greenhouse gas emission to 1990 levels by 2020 (an estimated 20 percent reduction) to be followed by mandatory additional reductions of emissions to 80 percent by 2006 levels by 2050.
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA), Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Bureau of Public Utilities (BPU) have developed several grant programs through the Global Warming Solution Fund Law signed by Governor Corzine in January 2008, to provide funding for greenhouse gas reductions by local governments.
The new CRI grant program, which is being undertaken with the support of Elizabethtown Gas, is unique in that it provides funding to non-profits as well as local governments to support conservation restoration projects that sequester carbon. Non-profit organizations and local governments own and manage tens of thousands of acres of farmland and open space in New Jersey and have a significant role in adapting their management to sequester carbon. The restoration projects funded through this groundbreaking small grant program are being conducted in forest, wetland and grassland areas. The projects funded in this initial round are all located within the service territory of Elizabethtown Gas.
The four different projects funded in this initial award of the Carbon Sequestration and Restoration Small Grant Program include two grassland restorations and two forest restoration projects in Sussex, Warren, Middlesex and Mercer Counties. CRI hopes to expand this program statewide in the coming years.
About Elizabethtown Gas
Elizabethtown Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of AGL Resources, provides natural gas delivery service to approximately 273,000 residential, business and industrial natural gas customers in New Jersey. It serves parts of Union, Middlesex, Sussex, Warren, Hunterdon, Morris and Mercer counties. For more information, visit www.elizabethtowngas.com
About AGL Resources
AGL
Resources (NYSE:AGL), an Atlanta-based energy services
company, serves approximately 2.3 million customers in six
states. For more information, visit www.aglresources.com
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