Climate Coalition sues Murphy administration for inaction
Trenton, NJ – EmpowerNJ today sued the Murphy administration for its failure to take enough meaningful action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the face of an escalating climate crisis and to follow the law of the state and its own policies. Today’s appeal to the Superior Court’s Appellate Division highlights the disconnect between the administration’s words and actions.
Six months ago, EmpowerNJ, a coalition of more than 120 environmental, community, religious and grassroots groups, formally legally required the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to follow state law in establishing and applying benchmarks to achieve a 50% reduction in climate pollutants by 2030 (50×30).
Two months after Hurricane Ida hit last September, Governor Murphy officially declared 50×30 to be state policy, but the DEP strongly rejected the attorneys’ petition in December. EmpowerNJ called the rejection a dereliction of duty and is appealing that decision in court today.
“Ida was not a wake up call, but another five fire alarms. There are only two ways to view the DEP’s categorical denial of our petition: the DEP has gone rogue or this administration does not is not interested in pursuing its own stated policies and state law If the Governor’s recent state of the state address is any indication, where climate change has been virtually ignored, the latter appears to be the case Anything less than 50×30 would be too little too late, so we’re suing the DEP,” said John Reichman, Esq., chair of BlueWaveNJ’s environmental committee.
In 2007, New Jersey passed the Global Warming Response Act (GWRA), which requires reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 to avert the climate crisis. However, the earth is warming much faster than climate science originally predicted, causing unprecedented, destructive, and unpredictable weather events around the world and in New Jersey with increasing regularity. Hurricane Ida caused the death of at least 30 New Jersey residents, the most of any state, and property damage estimated at $16 billion to $24 billion.
In 2018, universal scientific consensus called for a 45% reduction in GHG emissions from 2010 levels by 2030 to avert climate catastrophe, which is comparable to the Biden administration’s goal of a 50% reduction from 2005 levels by 2030. In 2019, Governor Murphy signed amendments to the GWRA that require interim benchmarks to meet the 80% GHG reduction target by 2050. In July 2021, EmpowerNJ filed its legal petition with the DEP demanding that it adopt rules consistent with law and science to achieve the critical interim benchmark of 50×30.
On November 10, 2021, Governor Murphy appeared to agree when he issued Executive Order 274, which made it “the policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 50% below 2006 levels. by 2030”. OE 274 cited the undeniable reasons for this policy: the continued burning of fossil fuels is already causing catastrophic weather events around the world; New Jersey is “particularly vulnerable to the devastating effects of climate change”; disadvantaged communities are disproportionately affected by climate change; and tackling climate change “requires a significant and immediate reduction in economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions.”
EmpowerNJ noted that the governor could have added additional reasons, for example, that renewables are now generally cheaper than fossil fuels; the economic cost of inaction is greater than the cost of action; and that fossil fuel power plants create direct, heavy and unacceptable health costs.
Supporters say all of this should have led to the DEP accepting the petition and initiating rules to accomplish the state’s purported policy of reducing climate pollutants by 50% by 2030. Instead, the DEP has outright rejected the petition a week after it proposed rules to limit carbon pollution. power plants that don’t even acknowledge let alone follow EO 274 and state law.
“None of the administration’s existing or proposed climate rules will prevent the continued proliferation of dirty pipelines, power plants, and other new sources of climate-destroying pollution in New Jersey. The proposed power plant rule doesn’t even require polluters to use the best available technology, let alone do anything to prevent new fossil fuel power plants, like the one proposed by the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission in Newark. , to be approved,” added Matt Smith. , NJ State Director for Food & Water Watch.
The groups say the DEP’s denial of EmpowerNJ’s petition is not an outlier. For every good decision the governor has made, like developing offshore wind and opposing the PennEast gas pipeline, there have been bad ones, like allowing a gas pipeline to be built through the Pinelands; so far refusing to halt development of the massive liquefied natural gas export project in Gibbstown and spending $16 billion on wasteful highway expansion projects, instead of spending that money on electrification our transport system and support public transport.
“Aside from how devastating, arbitrary and capricious the DEP’s denial of the petition is, it is also illegal. The Global Warming Response Act requires DEP to set interim benchmarks to reduce climate pollutants — it’s not “discretionary” as DEP argues,” Reichman concluded.
Through this call and other concerted actions, EmpowerNJ says it will continue to hold Governor Murphy and his administration accountable every time he breaks his promise to treat climate change for the existential threat that it is.
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Additional Quotes from EmpowerNJ Steering Committee Members
“We are facing increasing environmental impacts, pollution incidents, destruction of property and infrastructure, community disruptions and growing threats to public health and safety due to climate change right here in the world. New Jersey. The Governor and his DEP must recognize the urgency of measurably reducing greenhouse gas emissions and they must demonstrate specifically how NJ plans to achieve what Governor Murphy says he wants – a 50% reduction. by 2030. Moreover, the state simply cannot rationalize the issuance of permits for greenhouse gas emitting projects by saying that it is “impossible” not to do so. It’s not practical for residents to drown in basement apartments or for our communities to deal with catastrophic losses either. Devastating times require bold, quantifiable action to stop the new sources of the problem — greenhouse gases — and put every state agency to work for that mission,” said Tracy Carluccio, deputy director of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
“Since Governor Murphy took office, the climate emergency, as well as racial and democratic crises, have accelerated. Urgent action on climate change is needed now to create a healthier future for New Jersey families and generations to come,” said Eric Benson, Clean Water Action, NJ Campaigns Director. “Governor Murphy, who controls the DEP, DOT, BPU and DCA, already has the authority and the moral obligation to act faster on climate change. Preventing new climate projects from coming online and rapidly reducing emissions will save lives and limbs, property and money, and keep lights, ovens and stoves burning.
“Climate devastation is accelerating – floods, fires, Hurricane Ida, it’s more like alarm bells ringing. There isn’t a community or person in New Jersey who isn’t unaffected by the climate crisis. We see these impacts getting worse and happening more frequently. While we are on the front line in the climate battle, the DEP has rejected our petition and is allowing fossil fuel projects to go from l ‘before,” said Jeff Tittel, former manager of the NJ Sierra Club. “We’re number 2 in the nation for rising temperatures and building in flood-prone areas. While climate change is literally killing us , the DEP is falling far short of their challenges with weak rules and a lack of action. By rejecting our petition, they are violating the law and the Governor’s EO and putting us in further danger. We are going to court to have the DEP respects the a law and the fight against climate change. New Jersey needs to implement the Global Warming Response Act and put in place benchmarks to reduce GHG pollution by 50% by 2030. We are in court doing the job the DEP should be doing.
“It’s not enough for Governor Murphy to say he wants to reduce GHG emissions; he must act and he must act now. We have until 2030 to halve GHGs to avoid climate catastrophe. Every day the governor and other leaders refuse to act and make the climate crisis worse. Neither the DEP nor the Governor has provided a rational explanation as to why, if the state’s stated policy is to reduce GHGs by 50%, the DEP refuses to recognize this policy and take the necessary steps to enforce. The governor must direct not only the DEP, but all other state agencies, to take the necessary steps to reduce GHG pollution by 50% by 2030, said John Reichman, chairman of the committee of the environment of BlueWaveNJ.
“The Murphy administration has yet to take the bold action needed in response to a climate reality dominated by increasingly destructive events like Super Storm Ida, the unseasonable Colorado fires, the December tornadoes that ravaged the Midwest and a terrifying new assessment of Antarctica’s ‘glacier apocalyptic’,” said Matt Smith, NJ State Director for Food & Water Watch. “Fortunately, communities across the state are standing up to the polluters responsible for this destruction by insisting, above all else, on the need to shut down new sources of planet-destroying emissions. New Jerseyans have rallied in their thousands to shut down dirty pipelines and power plants and fight for the comprehensive agenda that prioritizes environmental justice. Governor Murphy must follow their example.
“DEP’s Denial of EmpowerNJ’s Petition for Regulator States, ‘Statewide Climate Policy Development [has been] ongoing since January 29, 2018.’ Yet no GHG reductions are mentioned in the past four years from any of its policies, and no such estimates have been found in the administration’s announcements. Essentially, the administration has spent four years issuing executive orders, conducting studies, writing reports and updates, proposing regulations, and reorganizing,” observed Ken Dolsky, co-leader of the coalition. Don’t Gas the Meadowlands. “It is high time to act concretely and it is clear that the Administration will not do it without being prosecuted”, he continued.
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