NJ Democrats Failed To Educate Voters And Take Steps To Prevent Trump Rollbacks BEFORE The election
They Are Now Offering Up A Fake “Resistance”
[Update: 2/13/25 – As usual, NJ Spotlight’s story gives NJ officials a pass. I give the guy the story and still get screwed! ~~~ end update]
The DEP and the AG are issuing MISLEADING and false press releases designed to create the appearance that they anticipated and are fighting the Trump attacks.
As far as I know, the Legislature has done nothing.
The Governor has made vague press statements but no specific commitments, at least regarding environmental, climate, and energy issues.
The administration is consistently caught flat footed and reacting to events. And the reactions are ineffective. DEP’s responses also have diverted attention from their failures as well.
If this lame cat and mouse fake resistance is allowed to pass muster with the NJ environmental community and media, we are surely doomed.
The Murphy Administration – via recent press releases issued by the Attorney General (AG) and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) – is creating the false impression that they are fighting Trump attacks on core environmental and climate laws, regulations, and programs – including Trump’s takedown of Governor Murphy’s off shore wind program, the foundation of the administration’s renewable energy and climate strategy.
The cynical game they are playing was made obvious by a press release issued by DEP on electric vehicle (EV) grant funding, which was issued the day after Trump’s Department Of Transportation ordered a freeze on the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program created under President Biden’s 2021 Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act.
The EV echo was not the first.
So let’s trace the pattern (in reverse chronological order):
I) Trump EV Freeze And DEP Response
On Thursday February 6, 2025, Trump’s Department of Transportation issued the following Order to State Transportation Departments. The Order froze funding and mandates a new federal policy review of State EV infrastructure programs:
NJ was provided $82,182,866 in FY 22 – 25 under the NEVI program.
According to federal DOT NEVI data, NJ has not opened ANY (ZERO) EV charging stations funded by that $82 million federal NEVI funding.
Repeat: no EV charging stations opened with $82 million in federal NEVI funds.
On Friday February 7, 2025, DEP issued this press release:
TRENTON – The Murphy Administration today announced the availability of $35 million in grants to help local governments electrify their shuttle, school bus and truck fleets to protect public health and the environment, leveraging proceeds from New Jersey’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
The DEP press release does NOT mention the Trump NEVI freeze.
The DEP press release does NOT mention the $82 million in NEVI funding that was frozen or the fact that NJ has opened ZERO EV charging stations with all that money.
Instead, the DEP diverts attention to the RGGI funding – about a third of NEVI funding – and other EV programs. Yet charging stations are the crucial factor in overcoming a lack of consumer confidence in the EV technology.
I am calling BS on the DEP for this misleading garbage.
[Update 2/10/25: Judge in US District Court in Rhode Island just found Trump administration had violated the prior restraining Order blocking the funding freeze. The Court noted criminal liability for defying Court orders. The judge ordered Trump to restore frozen funding. NJ is a plaintiff in this lawsuit. Good sign from the Court, but really bad sign that Trump openly defied a Court order. ~~~ end update]
II) Trump’s Dismantling Of NOAA, FEMA, And Climate Adaptation Programs And DEP’s Response
On January 20, 2025, Trump issued a barrage of radical and illegal Executive Orders, which among other things, included the dismantling of NOAA and FEMA, a freeze on federal grant funding, and elimination of existing federal climate adaptation programs.
On Tuesday February 4, 2025, DEP issued this press release:
TRENTON – Recent coastal ecosystem-restoration grants to Sayreville and Long Beach Township through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s National Coastal Resilience Fund have brought federal funding for communities participating in the state’s innovative Resilient NJ program to $26.5 million since 2021, Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette announced today.
While the DEP press release does mention federal funding (a pittance of $26.5 million and is backdated to 2021 explicitly to reflect the Biden administration), it does NOT mention any of the Trump Executive Order attacks on what DEP calls “Resilience” programs!!!!!!!
WTF kind of lame diversion is that?
III) Trump’s Project 2025 Executive Orders To “Dismantle The Administrative State” (and put the final nail in the coffin of Murphy’s Off Shore Wind Program) And The NJ AG and DEP Response
On January 20, 2025 Inauguration Day, Trump issued a barrage of illegal and radical Executive Orders, including Orders that, among other things, killed Governor Murphy’s off shore wind program and energy policies that threaten NJ’s coast while destroying any gains of DEP’s climate programs and BPU’s Energy Master Plan.
So, what was the Murphy Administration’s strategy and response?
I’ll remind readers that 15 months BEFORE the election, on July 28, 2023, I warned the DEP Commissioner and Legislators about the implications of Project 2025 and a Trump administration, urging that they:
I strongly urge you to get out in front of and do everything within your power to derail this freight train. This includes a strong public defense and expansion of regulatory programs, which is something both you and Gov. Murphy consistently either fail to defend or overtly run away from (“we’re not mandating ….” et al).
This warning was ignored.
I repeated this warning after the election, on November 13, 2024:
So, what did the Murphy AG and DEP do AFTER the election to prevent damage from Trump’s hostile takeover?
On January 17, 2025 the AG issued this press release, (which was re-issued by DEP on January 21, 2025, the day AFTER Trump’s Inauguration and series of Executive Orders:
TRENTON – Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin today announced three actions to defend key federal environmental protections that protect the health of all New Jerseyans. These filings come at a time when the incoming Trump Administration has threatened to reverse science-based regulations that protect clean air and water.
While appearing to challenge the Trump administration, this press release is a fraud and it is lame as well.
First the fraud.
The three actions mentioned by the AG press release DO NOT INVOLVE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS. They were taken by the Biden EPA before Trump was elected.
The first is only an amicus brief in support of an (EPA) Final Rule establishing nationwide drinking water standards for certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Trump has since withdrawn that rule.
The AG’s amicus brief is lame and ineffective.
The second AG action is equally lame and ineffective: a motion to intervene to defend an EPA Final Rule to strengthen the standards for lead in drinking water under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Trump EPA Administrator Zeldin has suspended that litigation.
The third is New Jersey joining a coalition of other states and local governments are asking to intervene in lawsuits to defend California’s Clean Air Act waiver for several vehicle emissions regulations.
Trump tried to block that lawsuit as well, but the US Supreme Court just stopped him.
The AG’s press release certainly served to highlight important issues, but it accomplished nothing substantively.
Governor Murphy has already lost his keystone off shore wind program, a large chunk of his EV program, his entire climate resilience and emissions reduction programs, his Energy Master Plan, and many, many other core elements of NJ’s environmental and public health protection program to the Trump attack.
I’ve been calling on State officials to develop a political, legislative and regulatory strategy to insulate NJ from Trump’s attacks for almost 2 years now.
Yet all I hear out of Trenton is crickets and cowards.
[End Note: Over the last 4 years, the Murphy DEP has issued numerous partisan press releases touting distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars of Biden – Harris infrastructure money to various NJ projects.
Trump has impounded all that money and frozen or dismantled all those programs.
Why can’t DEP just go back and consolidate all those prior releases into a Report on the devastating impacts of Trump’s dismantling?