More Murphy Green Fraud

Same Faux Green Cheerleaders Praise Gov. Murphy’s Latest Hot Air Balloon

NJ Spotlight Goes Along With Another Empty Gesture

Corporate Polluters Laugh At The Spectacle

I’ve previously written about how New York State climate activists’ secured passage of 2017 climate legislation that does not just establish emission reduction goals, but provides regulatory teeth and a mandatory schedule to meet those goals, see:

• What A Difference A State (Law) Makes

The NY laws’ teeth contrast sharply with NJ’s lame aspirational goals set by the toothless 2007 NJ Global Warming Response Act.

Yet, for some reason, NJ climate activists remain deluded and are in a form of climate denial, as they continue to waste time and effort expecting the NJ DEP to put regulatory teeth in a voluntary toothless law.

Now, NY climate Activists in neighboring New York State are rallying in Albany in support of $15 BILLION in new climate funding to help implement that law:

On Tuesday, March 28, New Yorkers from across the state will flood the streets of Albany to demand $15 billion for climate, jobs, and justice. This is the capstone action in the NY Renews budget campaign, and it could be the one that pushes us over the top. But to get the $15 billion our state needs, we need you.

And they again have some support of NY’s Governor and legislators, see:

• New York Lawmakers Want $10B for Climate

Democratic lawmakers and environmental advocates this week called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to dedicate $10 billion in her executive state budget proposal to fund projects outlined in the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Without those dollars, they say, the state’s ambitious goals will be placed at risk near the start of a decades-long effort.

And the polluters – not the taxpayers – will pay for it:

A related bill to create a climate change Superfund, sponsored by Sen. Liz Krueger and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, would require companies involved with fossil fuels to foot a $30 billion bill to address lingering issues associated with previous major storms — such as 2012’s Hurricane Sandy — and fund climate resiliency projects.

Companies would be required to pay on a sliding scale that corresponds with their share of greenhouse gas emissions between 2000 and 2018. The state is now by law required to drastically cut carbon emissions by 2030.

“They have the money … it’s their responsibility, all the damages that we’re all dealing with,” said Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group. “They should pay.”

Meanwhile, here in NJ, so called climate activists – actually mostly Gov. Murphy’s faux green cheerleaders – are doing NONE OF THIS.

THEY ARE NOT:

• making ANY demands that NJ Legislators put regulatory teeth in NJ’s Global Warming Response Act (like NY’s law)

• making demands for billions of new State money to fund a real response to the climate emergency

• making any demands that polluters pay (not even to increase the paltry RGGI allowance fee!)

• criticizing weak DEP rules and the toothless Global Warming Response Act

Instead, they are

• PRAISING Gov. Murphy toothless Executive Orders;

• PRAISING Gov. Murphy for a $40 million “Green Fund” token; (a deeply cynical token gesture that merely offsets his $40 million cut resulting from a $660 million corporate business tax cut – see link below); and

• BEGGING – merely asking the Gov. to please – pretty please, with sugar on top – to stop diverting hundreds of millions of dollars in clean energy funds while cutting corporate taxes, see:

• Gov. Murphy To Slash $36 Million In Environmental Funding To Provide A Corporate Tax Cut

[Update: a Trenton reader writes to remind that I’m missing a key point on context:

this being done with record budgets – $54 billion last year and $54 Billion this year – not including $3 billion to $6 billion of Biden and federal covid money thats unspent – the budget in 2022 was only-“around $40 billion- and there no money for environment

What the hell is wrong with NJ climate activists?

The NJ Spotlight story today is another total disgrace in journalism and cheerleading:

• Murphy’s Green Fund could finance more clean-energy projects

“It is important to have New Jersey at the front of the line for the IRA, so that we can clean up the air and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,’’ said Ed Potosnak, executive director of the League of Conservation Voters in New Jersey. …..

“It’s a great use of state money,’’ said Mary Barber, director of clean energy for New Jersey for the Environmental Defense Fund. ….

Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, added: “We need to get more money from the feds for clean-energy projects in New Jersey. The Green Fund could help get more money and fund clean renewable energy projects.’’

These people are not climate activists or advocates – they are embarrassing cheerleaders, fools, dupes, and clowns.

Tom Johnson is deeply cynical and manipulative and a dishonest “journalist” who knows exactly what he is doing by this kind of fake reporting (while failing to report critically on real issues, other than his biased pro-business rants on the “high costs of renewable energy”).

Nothing will change unless and until the real activists start telling the truth. That also means calling out their fellow climate colleagues for their sellouts.

That’s always the first step on the road to recovery.