Same Empty Slogans, With A New Right Wing Attack On Land Use Regulation
No Attempt To Even Try To Defend The Substance Of His Record
Yesterday, NJ Gov. Murphy delivered his State of the State address, going into the “lame duck” final year of his two term 8 year tenure (read the full speech).
Since day one, I’ve been a critic of the Governor’s climate and environmental policies and his DEP Commissioner. Commissioner LaTourette is a longtime former corporate lawyer for major polluters and developers, who failed to comply with ethics disclosure and recusal requirements to mask that record. Incredibly, the Gov. had the balls to describe him as a “Erin Brockovitch” community public interest lawyer.
Both men talk a good game. Both know how to spread money around to co-opt the environmental groups and buy political support. And both share the same corporate values and Neoliberal ideology, particularly on regulation. So I make no fake claims to objectivity.
I won’t spend a lot of time summarizing the 7 years of the Murphy DEP’s poor performance – interested readers can use the search function in the upper right corner of this webpage.
And surprisingly, while they left a LOT out and buried the issue, NJ Spotlight did a pretty good set up piece on some of his climate and energy record. In an unusual accountability move (unusual for NJ Spotlight coverage), NJ Spotlight actually cited data that revealed that NJ is very far from meeting the purely voluntary emission reduction goals of the Global Warming Response Act and the Governor’s toothless Executive Orders, as well as EV targets.
But I do have to respond to what the Governor said in his speech.
To do so, I’ll take a lazy approach and simply excerpt text of the Governor’s remarks (which will be boldface in italics).
Let’s start with the most egregious claim:
“One of our Administration’s proudest accomplishments has been making generational progress in protecting our environment.”
Despite over 40 years of education and professional experience, I must admit that I don’t know what “generational progress” means.
Could the Governor be referring to his DEP Commissioner’s excessive use of several Social Media accounts to dupe the younger generation, who are gullible enough to trust and rely on that gaslighting spin?
Let’ move on to the Governor’s claims about “affordable housing” and NJ State and local planning and zoning laws and land use regulations.
“This year, I am calling on the Legislature to reform our state’s zoning and permitting laws, with a number of proposals led by Senator Troy Singleton and his colleagues, so we can make it easier to build new housing in the communities where it’s needed most.
By cutting red tape and easing outdated restrictions, we can build potentially thousands of new, affordable housing units over the next decade.”
Again, NJ Spotlight did a pretty good set up story, so I won’t go into all the issues.
The Murphy DEP has spent 7 years deferring to the legally false doctrine of “local home rule” (e.g. by claiming it is “not DEP’s job to say no to development” or “dictate where development should occur”) and relying on market forces (e.g. buyer/seller disclosure of flood risks hazards in other real estate transaction process).
Based on this deference (to local government and market forces), the DEP has been rubber stamping land use permit approvals for, among other things, millions of square feet of warehouse space and abdicating DEP’s regulatory responsibilities to protect public health, safety and the environment to local governments (e.g. local governments control Emergency Management Plan implementation (wildfire, hurricane, flood, chemical emergencies etc, and water and sewer infrastructure, to name a few).
So, after 7 years of local deference and regulatory abdication – and rubber stamping approval of thousands of units of housing built in unsafe or environmentally sensitive locations – the Gov. wants to wave his magic wand and over-ride local control to promote even more growth and development and environmental abuse?
Are you kidding me?
The Governor’s assumption that “red tape” is driving high housing costs is straight out of Governor Christie’s right wing anti-regulatory playbook and echo Trump’s attack and Project 2025 plans to “dismantle the administrative state”.
Now let’s move on to the Governor’s claims about climate and environment.
“Additionally — and in light of the anti-choice policies supported by the current majorities in Congress — today, I am also announcing that New Jersey will begin stockpiling a supply of Mifepristone, so every woman can access this crucial form of reproductive care.
When it comes to protecting fundamental rights, I will not give an inch.”
Note that this “commitment” to “fundamental rights” applies to playing defense against federal legislative rollbacks. The Gov. let Trump and his Project 2025 executive branch and regulatory strategy off the hook.
Plus, his defensive commitment does NOT apply to State rights he could support under State law, including the proposed Constitutional amendment Resolution (now dead in the Senate Budget Committee) to guarantee Constitutional rights to a safe and clean environment.
“But, despite how far we have come, we cannot escape the reality that climate change looms larger by the day.”
The Governor does not even attempt to provide examples or data to support the claim of “how far we’ve come”. The real performance metrics are weak, at best.
“Just a few months ago, New Jersey saw its driest fall season in recorded history, which fueled a series of life-threatening wildfires and pushed our supply of water to dangerously low levels.
And look at the drought-driven disaster that has befallen Los Angeles.”
The Gov. won’t let any facts get in the way, so let me provide some.
More than 90% of NJ’s alleged over 1,000 so called wildfires per year are minor, less than 1-2 acres in size, according to DEP’s own data I obtained by filing an OPRA. The DEP Commissioner has exaggerated and politicized this data with dozens of misleading press releases and public statements, including legislative testimony. DEP has used this exaggerated and misleading data to justify logging in NJ forests.
Gov. Murphy repeats this DEP exaggeration by invoking the LA wildfires.
In contrast to this rhetoric, hypocritically, in the places in NJ where wildfire risks are real and significant – as mapped by the DEP – the Murphy DEP has refused to act to protect people and property. Specifically, the Murphy DEP denied a rulemaking petition to force DEP to strengthen regulations to restrict new development in high wildfire hazard areas DEP themselves have mapped.
The DEP also was very slow (and late) in declaring drought advisory and drought warnings.
“As you know, our Administration has already set one of the most ambitious clean energy goals in the country: running New Jersey on 100% clean energy by 2035.”
And to make sure our state remains on track to reach that goal, I am calling on the Legislature to work with Senator Bob Smith and Assemblymen Wayne DeAngelo and Rob Karabinchak to codify our clean energy standard into law.”
The Governor fails to note that the goals he references are aspirational, voluntary, toothless, and not enforceable. This fact applies to both the Global Warming Response Act goals and the goals in the Governor’s various Executive Orders. The Governor KNEW this when he assumed office 7 years ago and issued all those Executive Orders – the legal equivalent of press releases – and did NOTHING about that.
Sorry, calling on the Legislature to put teeth in NJ’s climate laws after 7 years does not pass the straight face test.
