Days earlier -- as former Vice President Al Gore looked on -- the Governor had signed a bill making New Jersey only the third state in the nation to mandate greenhouse gas reduction. The legislation he signed calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, approximately a 20 percent reduction, followed by a further reduction of emissions to 80 percent below 2006 levels by 2050. It advances provisions previously set forth in Executive Order 54 which he signed in February.

In an op-ed piece that ran in the Star-Ledger Sunday, July 8, the Governor invoked President John F. Kennedy's famous moon challenge and asserted that America has both the ingenuity and the innovative tradition to respond and even to prosper in the face of global warming.

Read "Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast: Science, Impact, and Solutions," a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Read about New Jersey greenhouse gas legislation.