Clean Water Action Statement On Transition Team Report on Energy & Environment
Governor Philip Murphy’s Environment and Energy Transition Advisory Committee released its recommended priorities in setting a positive course for New Jersey to become a national environmental leader again.
The report encompass four key elements: clean energy, climate change, environmental justice disparities, protecting water and natural resources.
The recommendations reflect many of the goals that Clean Water Action has been fighting for in its campaigns at the local level and in the State House; most notably environmental justice, water, and clean energy.
“This is a bright new day for the environment and public health and not a moment too soon,” said Amy Goldsmith, NJ state director for Clean Water Action. “We have an incredible opportunity to catapult New Jersey into becoming an environmental champion again instead of the environmental backsliders we had become during Christie’s time in the governor’s seat.”
Clean Water Action is involved in extensive environmental justice work in Newark concerning water, toxics, port pollution and climate justice. The Transition Team’s report embraced the position of the Clean Water Action–led Coalition for Healthy Ports (CHP) to re-establish a Port Authority ban on pre-2007 engine trucks. These trucks emit high levels of diesel pollution that contribute to higher cancer risks, premature deaths, strokes and soaring asthma rates in Newark and surrounding port-adjacent communities like Jersey City, Bayonne and Elizabeth. The report targets the use of funds from various sources including the Volkswagen settlement and Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiate (RGGI), which Christie had abandoned, to help pay for the changeover.
Under current PANYNJ policy, it would take 15 years to turn over the fleet to cleaner diesel and zero emission vehicles. See more details in CHP gubernatorial briefing book and technical report at https://www.cleanwateraction.
The report also includes recommendations for a statewide water infrastructure initiative including strategies to get lead out of drinking water systems and address contaminants where protections are too weak and NewJerseyans are exposed too often. Clean Water Action has worked on lead in drinking water for decades and is responsible for establishing more protective testing and compliance rules under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Clean Water Action worked long and hard to protect the Highlands, the drinking water supply for 4.5 million including Newark. Now we need to employ existing innovative strategies to help cities like Newark replace their lead service lines.
The plan also outlines in more detail how Governor Murphy can best realize the commitment he made on the campaign trail to achieve 100 percent renewable power by 2050, and immediately advance the offshore wind project that Christie reneged on.
“Finally we can feel hopeful and optimistic as well as challenged to achieve high goals that will protect the environment, improve our health and make our economy more prosperous and sustainable for generations to come,” added Goldsmith. “The last eight years felt like living in a dungeon with no escape. This report is the beginning of a road map that places environmental justice as a cornerstone to the state’s future policymaking.”
