DEP Rules Promote Expansion of Gas Storage & Will Increase Greenhouse Gas Emissions
DEP Rules Ignore And Contradict Limits Of Global Warming Response Act
Legislature Must Exercise It’s Constitutional Veto Power
Senate Environment Committee Chair Bob Smith
Article V, Section IV, paragraph 6 of the NJ Constitution provides authority to the Legislature to veto administrative regulations that the Legislature finds are inconsistent with the Legislative intent of the laws they pass that authorize those regulations.
Most recently, the Legislature exercised that power to seek a veto of the Christie DEP’s proposed rollbacks of the Highlands Septic Density Standards (see ACR 192 (McKeon) and the DEP flood hazard rules that eliminated stream buffer protections (see SCR 66 (Smith).
Assemblyman McKeon (D-Essex) former Chair of the Environment Committee
On Monday May 1, 2023, the Murphy DEP adopted major new regulations that would allow operation and expansion of storage of fossil gas in underground “caverns”, for details, see:
Those new rules would allow greenhouse gas emissions to continue and to increase, with no consideration of attainment of the deep emission reduction limits of the NJ Global Warming Response Act.
In that Act, the Legislature found: (emphasis mine)
The Legislature therefore finds and declares that it is in the public interest to establish a greenhouse gas emissions reduction program to limit the level of Statewide greenhouse gas emissions and greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generated outside the State but consumed in the State, to the 1990 level or below, of those emissions by the year 2020, and to reduce those emissions to 80% below the 2006 level by the year 2050.
The Legislature codified those emission reduction limits in Section 4 of the statute and required that DEP establish an emission inventory.
In Section 5, the Legislature directed DEP to require emissions reporting:
Pursuant to the rules and regulations adopted pursuant to subsection a. of this section, the department shall require reporting of the greenhouse gas emissions:
… from any additional entities that are significant emitters of greenhouse gases, as determined by the department, and as appropriate to enable the department to monitor compliance with progress toward the 2020 limit and the 2050 limit.
The DEP’s “cavern” storage rules fail to consider whether the continued operation and expansion of these caverns is consistent with the emission reduction limits of the GWRA.
The DEP rules do not require that GHG emissions be quantified and included in the emission inventory.
The DEP rules do not require emissions reporting to enable DEP to “monitor compliance with progress towards the 2020 limit and the 2050 limit.”
Therefore, the DEP rules contradict and are inconsistent with the letter and the spirit and emission reduction limits of the Global Warming Response Act and should be vetoed by the Legislature.
I sent this letter on May 6 to long avowed climate leaders Senator Bob Smith (Chairman of the Senate Environment Committee), Senator Greenstein, and Assemblyman McKeon, seeking their support for the passage of a joint Resolution declaring the DEP rules “inconsistent with legislative intent”. (with a copy to so called climate leaders: NJ Sierra Club, Environment NJ, Clean Water Action, Delaware Riverkeeper, and Food And Water Watch).
This is a test of their leadership. If they are unwilling to take on the gas industry and a fellow Democratic Governor, then they are not serious about real actions to address the climate emergency:
Dear Senator Smith:
On Monday May 1, 2023, DEP adopted major new regulations that would allow the continued operation and expansion of storage of highly explosive and flammable fossil gases in underground “caverns”.
To read the DEP adoption document and DEP response to strong public criticism, see:
https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/rules/adoptions/adopt-20230501a.pdf
The DEP rule proposal did not consider or quantify the emissions of greenhouse gases, the global warming potential of those emissions, or the implications of the proposal on NJ’s attainment of the greenhouse gas emission reduction goals of the NJ Global Warming Response Act associated with the proposal. (see the May 16, 2022 DEP proposal here:
https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/rules/proposals/proposal-20220516a.pdf
The adopted new rules provide no requirements that greenhouse gas emissions be quantified.
The dropped new rules provide no requirements to comply with or any science based enforceable regulatory standard that would authorize the Department to deny a permit for a new “cavern” storage facility; for the renewal of a permit for an existing cavern storage facility; or the expansion of an existing storage facility.
The DEP’s failure to consider and/or limit greenhouse gas emissions from major fossil infrastructure – or to consider how greenhouse gas emissions impact, relate to, or frustrate NJ’s attainment of the Global Warming Response Act goals – are fatal scientific, regulatory, and public policy flaws.
Those flaws also contradict the goals, objectives, and intent of the Global Warming Response Act and are therefore inconsistent with the legislative intent of the Global Warming Response Act.
I therefore strongly urge you to exercise your Constitutional authority and introduce and enact a joint Resolution determining the DEP rules are inconsistent with legislative intent.
If DEP fails to retract or revoke these rules, I also urge you to strike them down.
I’m available to provide additional information upon your request.
Respectfully,
Bill Wolfe