WolfeNotes.com

“You Humbug! – “You are a very bad man!”

State Land Use Planning Is Transformed Into Business Advocacy

Another Green Light To Sprawl

Greetings!

Please be advised that I just received another “Cancellation” message from the Murphy administration’s “Office of Planning Advocacy” (which has become little more than an Office Of Business Advocacy).

The NJ State Development and Redevelopment Plan and the State Planning Commission have virtually been cancelled as well.

Government planning, regulation, and the State Plan are taboo, as a Wall Street oriented Governor and a former corporate lawyer DEP Commissioner abdicate to market forces.

That cancellation and abandonment of State government planning and regulation are reflected in the Murphy administration’s governance, as exposed by a host of ad hoc, uncoordinated, and environmentally damaging economic development policies like: expansion of highway capacity; crumbling and dysfunctional public transit; extended delays in conversion to renewable energy and electrification; expansion of fossil fueled natural gas infrastructure; extension of sewer/wastewater infrastructure to promote sprawl; neglect of the Pinelands, Highlands, and State Parks and Forests; and continuing vulnerability to all forms of disaster, including public health pandemics.

As a result, sprawl development has been revived and warehouses are exploding, while the last remaining farms and forests disappear and even the possibility of attainment of Clean Air standards and the greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals of the voluntary NJ Global Warming Response Act are vanishing.

Yet you wouldn’t know any of this from NJ media or the environmental groups, who all praise and parrot the firehose of self serving DEP press releases.

Happy Climate Week!

Screenshot

Looks More Like “Vulnerability” and “Inundation” To Me

The photo above is posted on the Murphy DEP’s “Resilient NJ” website.

I went there because DEP issued another over the top press release today that announced a new $20 million “resilience program” TO MODERNIZE STORMWATER INFRASTRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT IN FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE THREATS (caps in DEP original).

The money is from federal infrastructure funds, not state appropriated funds, so there was no political leadership or tough budget decision required by the Murphy Administration.

That money also provides another opportunity for DEP to make a partisan electoral plug – another example of the politicization of virtually everything the Murphy DEP does:

The [DEP resilience] program is funded by $20 million from the Biden-Harris Administration’s American Rescue Plan.

Another misguided thing the Murphy DEP seems adept at is throwing money at problems and relying on “incentives’ and failed voluntary programs, instead of enforcing environmental laws and ratcheting down on regulations.

Of course, throwing money around also buys friends, co-opts critics, and generates good press, something Commissioner LaTourette has shown to be well suited for.

In sharp contrast, enforcement and regulation tend to prompt harsh criticism, particularly by the corporate business community. We can’t have any of that now, can we?

But let’s get back to that DEP photo on their “Resilient NJ” webpage.

It sure looks like “Inundated or Underwater NJ” to me – barrier islands and all those houses are soon gone, according to DEP’s own science on sea level rise and coastal storms.

Their own photo makes the case for the need for a policy of “strategic retreat” – which is something they literally bury their heads in the sand and ignore (while they throw tons of public money at failed “solutions”).

The irony (and cluelessness at DEP) are truly remarkable.

Another Dangerfield Day

Sometimes I feel, sometimes I feel,
Like I’ve been tied to the whippin’ post.
Tied to the whippin’ post, tied to the whippin’ post.
Good Lord, I feel like I’m dyin’ ~~~~ Whipping Post (Allman Brothers Band, 1969) 

I still get pissed by crap like this.

My note to DEP Commissioner LaTourette is self explanatory:

Dear Commissioner LaTourette:

In just now reading the Department’s Water Supply Plan (2024 Update), I came across this misleading and incomplete historical claim on page 125: (emphasis mine):

“Maintaining Infrastructure: Starting in 2008, the New Jersey Clean Water Council (CWC) has conducted public hearings focused on water-related environmental infrastructure (including drinking water), regarding objectives, needs, financing, and management in the State.”

https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/water-supply-plan/2024-njswsp.pdf#page=5

The Clean Water Council received expert testimony on infrastructure years BEFORE 2008.

For the record, I was one of the very, very, very few people who put this issue on the policy agenda back in 2005. Here is my testimony FYI (with opening excerpt):

Testimony to the Clean Water Council October 31, 2005

Bill Wolfe, Director, NJ PEER

A public investment strategy and regulatory agenda to protect public health, quality of life, drinking water and preserve remaining high quality streams, lakes, rivers, wetlands, forests, & farms.

Need for Public Investment – Financing environmental infrastructure deficits

The first priority of the Clean Water Council should be a strong recommendation to the next Administration to get the environmental infrastructure deficit issue on the political and policy radar screens. The Council should focus on the fact that environmental infrastructure deficits are a serious and long ignored problem that threaten NJ’s economic future, quality of life, public health, and ecological integrity. The Council needs to emphasize that water resource and environmental infrastructure expenditures are investments. The Council should recommend the absolute need to establish creative new funding sources to finance this critical deficit.”

Full testimony, here:

https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/cleanwatercouncil/pdf/2005_testimony_bill_wolfe.pdf

It’s a shame that the Department has no respect for history and is incapable of listening to and learning from its critics and former leaders.

Bill Wolfe

Former DEP Deputy Commissioner And His Hired Wife

Moriarty Deleted His Incriminating Linked In Biography Account Today

(Caption: former Murphy DEP Deputy Commissioner Sean Moriarty (center) grabs the mike to speak at NJ BIA conference panel of former DEP  high level managers, 6/4/24)

DEP issued another self serving and highly spun press release today. No biggie – the sun rose in the east.

But I was intrigued by the anomalous stormwater award to flood prone Lambertville (of all places), as well as this quote: (boldface in original)

“There is a lot of work to be done to upgrade our state’s stormwater infrastructure and to improve water quality and reduce flooding, but these benefits cannot be achieved without the cooperation between the state and local communities. Lambertville has proven to be an invaluable partner in these efforts and a true leader among municipalities,” said Jennifer Moriarty, Assistant Commissioner for Watershed and Land Management.

Yes, Lambertville has chronic and severe flooding problems (and the town just so happens to be threatened by a 200 housing unit development by K. Hovnanian on a forested parcel of land on steep slopes just above downtown). Just look at downtown photos after tropical storm Irene (8/28/11):

But aside from the absurdity of a stormwater award to a Delaware Riverfront town that faces chronic flooding – but regardless is approving a massive new 200 unit development on steep forested slopes on bluffs just above town – just who is DEP Assistant Commissioner Jennifer Moriarty?

Well, it turns out that she just so happens to be the wife of former DEP Deputy Commissioner Sean Moriarty –

It appears that she was hired during his tenure – a man I recently filed an ethics complaint to the State Ethics Commission, see:

• Murphy DEP Corporate Revolving Door Swinging Wildly

I followed that complaint up with addition information, see:

• Polluters’ Lobbying Conference Stacked With Former DEP Officials

Yet despite the pending State Ethics Commission review of Moriarty’s post employment work, Mr. Moriarty brazenly and flagrantly violated ethical post employment restrictions at the NJ BIA conference (I guess he couldn’t help himself being amidst all those fellow former DEP manager revolving door hacks).

Having seemingly been ignored by my alleged post employment violations by Mr. Moriarty, today, after learning of his wife’s position, I called Nepotism on his Assistant Commissioner wife and filed another complaint to the State Ethics Commission:

Dear State Ethics Commission:

Please consider the following *June 4, 2024 remarks by former DEP Deputy Commissioner Sean Moriarty as a private attorney (and ELEC regulated lobbyist) at the NJ Business and Industry Council’s conference panel on “How To Improve Regulatory Programs At DEP”, see:

https://njbia.org/videos/how-to-improve-regulatory-programs-at-njdep/

At the time, Mr. Moriarty was acting as a private attorney and ELEC regulated lobbyist seeking to influence government policy.

He clearly was making statements based on his confidential experiences at DEP, and he was sharing information and expertise “otherwise not available to the public” within the post employment timeframes under ethics code.

I urge your investigation of Mr. Moriarty for compliance with NJ ethics laws, including the situation outlined in the email below.

Bill Wolfe

Here is the “below email” on Nepotism I sent to the ethics Commission and to DEP Commissioner LaTourette:

Dear Commissioner LaTourette:

I am writing based on disturbing information I obtained in the DEP press release issued today (see https://dep.nj.gov/newsrel/24_0040/

I am sure that you must know that your current Assistant Commissioner for Watershed Management and Land Use, Jennifer Moriarty – who is quoted in that press release – is the wife of former Deputy Commissioner Sean Moriarty (who recently left DEP and is now in the private sector representing clients with business interests and appearing before DEP), see:

https://nj.gov/dep/commissioner/orgchart.pdf

I thought that your appointment of current Deputy Commissioner Jane Rosenblatt, the daughter of former DEP high level managers Dave Rosenblatt and Liz Semple, was highly suspect with respect to nepotism. Worse, Ms, Rosenblatt clearly lacked the qualifications and experience to fit that Deputy Commissioner position when you appointed her.

These appointments raise serious revolving door, post employment restrictions, nepotism, and conflict of interest issues. They also seriously impair you judgement and professionalism.

Frankly, I am appalled and therefore via this email am referring this situation to the State Ethics Commission for investigation.

Bill Wolfe

In a followup post, I will be writing a more detailed expose about all the interconnecting corrupt relationships between Moriarty, his wife, other DEP managers, K Hovnanian, and the corrupt Lambertville 200 unit development.

Amazingly, corrupt indicted machine politician George Norcross is involved as well.

But for now, I leave it with this revealing episode.

Almost immediately after I posted a critical comment that exposed the fraud, Mr. Moriarty took down his Linked in site.

But I was sure to save this comment – She desperately wanted so badly to be part of the “Club”:

How can Sierra Club’s director praise this corruption?