Testifying before the Assembly Judiciary Committee in support of the "New Voter Empowerment Act" on Monday, March 23, 2016.

The "New Voter Empowerment Act" cleared the Assembly Judiciary Committee with bi-partisan support on Monday, May 23, 2016, and I am happy to share that it will be voted upon at the next session of the General Assembly this upcoming Thursday, May 26, 2016.  I am optimistic that my fellow Assembly Members will agree that this bill will encourage young people to fully exercise their democratic right, and create more life-long voters.

Science and politics have a pretty long history together, so it’s not really surprising that the two are still duking it out when it comes to the future.

What makes this particular juncture in history and in the science/politics fight such an important one, however, is that we are actually at a real crossroads. And this is not the usual “sky is falling” alarmism. We really are, as a planet, inhaling energy resources like a Shop-Vac, and with highly populated parts of the world like India and China using more power every day, it’s time for a better approach to energy production than melted dinosaurs.

So here’s the spot where a panacea-type solution gets put on the table, right? Something like, say, fusion energy, which would have all the benefits and few of the drawbacks of large-scale energy sources like gasoline or nuclear fission.

Well, yes and no. Yes, fusion would be great, but it’s not the only thing, says Andrew Zwicker, state assemblyman and physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The answer (at least the science part of it) lies in a concert of fusion research and renewable resources like wind and solar that are available now — mainly because realizing workable fusion has been 30 years away for about 50 years now.

The other answer? Getting through the political wall that keeps needed funding and patient, rational discourse on its belly. And Zwicker is not sure which one is the harder challenge to overcome.

Zwicker will be one of two main speakers at “The Future of Energy in Our Region,” the latest installment of the lecture series “Framing the Future,” hosted by the D&R Greenway Land Trust and Green Hour Radio, on Tuesday, May 24, at 6:30 p.m. at D&R Greenway’s Johnson Education Center, One Preservation Place, Princeton.  Zwicker will join Thomas Leyden, vice president of energy storage deployment at SunEdison, to discuss how our electric power sector is transforming to meet the challenges of climate change and to embrace the promise of emerging technologies. Admission is free. Visit www.drgreenway.org, E-mailrsvp@drgreenway.org, or call 609-924-4646.

"Our institutions of higher education, our businesses and our industries have a stake in the growth and prosperity of our state," said Zwicker (D-Somerset/Mercer/Middlesex/Hunterdon). "The brainpower is there. Let's tap into that wealth of knowledge and build a culture of innovation will make not just our economy, but our higher education institutions and our industries stronger."

 "The pipeline proposal represents a lack of respect for the rule of law, utter disregard for New Jersey's natural resources and an assault on the ownership of private property. Considering the fundamental right of individual landowners to retain their properties and the fundamental responsibility of the state to protect our waterways, wildlife and open space, it would be irresponsible to move forward with this project." 

View my letter to FERC in opposition of the PennEast Pipeline.

New Jersey Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker (right) takes a selfie with MCCC Democrats president Dan Hurley (front left) and members of the club during a visit to the West Windsor Campus

As I come upon my first 100 days in office, I’ve been reflecting on the time we spent campaigning.  As this article explains, my campaign was reliant on statistical modeling, which provided the evidence we used to pinpoint the voters most likely to vote for me. We allowed the evidence to guide us – and this is the same approach I have been using to legislate.

- Andrew