Senate Environment Committee To Probe Murphy DEP’s Climate Collapse

Senate Hearing Held Just One Week After DEP Public Debacle On GHG Emission Rule

Is This Legislative Oversight or The Typical Trenton Kabuki and Political Cover?

The Wheels Have Come Off  – The Spin Spell Is Broken

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again

The Senate Environment Committee will meet on February 10, to consider the following:

On Feb. 10 at 10 AM in Trenton, the NJ Senate Environment committee will meet to hear testimony from invited guests on the impacts of climate change in New Jersey, & what actions the State is taking, & should take, to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Say what?

It’s a little late in the game to be asking “what actions the State is taking, & should take, to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.”

Scientists, policy experts, environmental groups, the BPU Energy Master Plan, and various DEP Reports and climate initiatives have been documenting climate impacts and recommending actions to reduce emissions for literally decades.

And notice that the question is asked only to “invited guests” – critics need not apply.

The Senate hearing comes just 8 days after the debacle exposed by DEP’s public hearing on proposed CO2 emission rules.

That DEP debacle exposed a total collapse by the Murphy DEP. For the first time, even NJ Spotlight was forced to report the reality behind 15 years of spin, and not just out of the mouths of the typical suspects, i.e. the marginalized radical critics, but a Rutgers professor.

NJ Spotlight reported: (“Disappointment, Outrage, Incredulity”):

David Hughes, a professor at Rutgers University, agreed, saying the DEP failed to protect lives endangered by the climate crisis. “You need to start over,’’ he told DEP officials, blaming them for favoring economic interests over tackling the climate crisis.

BOOM!

That DEP proposed rule and the public hearing exposed the sham of the:

• voluntary and aspirational goals of the Global Warming Response Act;
• Gov. Murphy’s Executive Orders; and
• Environmental justice legislation

Which forces obvious questions:

• Is Committee Chairman Bob Smith conducting legitimate critical legislative oversight to hold DEP’s feet to the fire and probe the legal questions of whether the GWRA goals are enforceable and the Act authorizes DEP regulatory authority to reduce GHG emissions to attain those goals, based on public testimony at the DEP hearing and the letter I sent him warning of the toothless GWRA and fatally flawed DEP rule proposal?

• Or is the Chairman conducting just another typical Trenton Kabuki dance to provide political cover for the Murphy administration and dampen growing criticism?

• Or is Chairman Smith providing a platform to the business community to back DEP off any future land use rule proposals now in the pipeline under the DEP’s REAL Climate PACT initiative?

Given that the testimony is limited to “invited guests” and Smith’s long history of Kabuki on the GWRA and climate issues, my sense is that Smith is trying to do damage control for the Murphy DEP and prevent Pandora’s box from opening any further (ie. exposure of the legal fact that the GWRA is toothless and the public has been duped for 15 years).

Given Smith’s long history of animus to DEP land use regulations (he was ordered by Gov. McGreevey to sponsor the Highlands Act), I assume that he also wants to send a message to DEP to back off any upcoming strict land use “climate adaptation” regulations DEP is calling the REAL initiative or PACT.

Time will tell.

But, as I’ve written, the green masks are off. 

The media smells blood in the water, the climate activists finally have begun to hit the regulatory nail on the head, and the credibility of Gov. Murphy and DEP’s sycophants has evaporated.

These realities will severely limit Chairman Smith’s ability to use his “invited guests” to provide cover.

And just as I predicted, the wheels are off – and the spell is broken:

All your magic and your ways and schemes
All your lies come and tear at your dreams
When the spell is broken
(Can’t cry if you don’t know how)
When the spell is broken.  ~~~ Bonnie Raitt version