“Common-sense regulations have an essential role to play in building a stronger and fairer economy and promoting New Jersey’s progressive values, such as our commitment to environmental protection,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “After months of gathering input from State agencies and stakeholders, this Executive Order institutes the principles that will guide our rules and regulations going forward. These principles include an instruction to State agencies to evaluate actions that can be taken when the federal government rolls back prior protections, a directive to agencies to move permitting processes online where practicable, and a requirement that agencies provide plain-language summaries of their rules that are readable and understandable by the public.”

Among the directives to improve New Jersey’s regulatory structure, Governor Murphy’s Order requires State agencies to:

• Seek to develop state-level regulatory frameworks and cooperate with other states where appropriate when federal regulation is inadequate to protect the environment, health, safety, and welfare of New Jersey’s residents and communities;
• Evaluate actions New Jersey may take when the federal government repeals or rolls back prior protections for public health, welfare, safety, or the environment;
• Use the best available data, including scientific data if applicable;
• Provide opportunities for groups and stakeholders to engage with the State in crafting regulatory solutions, where practicable;
• Assess the impact of rules by comparing the proposed benefits to the public with the proposed burdens, including the evaluation of harder-to-quantify benefits and the consideration of distributed impacts, or the effects that a regulatory action will have on various subsets of the population or economy;
• Give due consideration to environmental justice concerns;
• Move application, approval, and permitting processes online where practicable;
• Provide summaries of rule proposals and new rules that use straightforward language that is non-technical and can be understood by the public; and
• Consider practicable and beneficial alternatives to direct regulation, such as targeted incentives encouraging desired activity.

The Order will take effect on June 1, 2019.

Copy of Executive Order No. 63