Revised Climate Predictions Retreat From Dire Predictions
That are the Basis of State’s Costly Regulations

Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph Mancini applauded the state’s decision to delay the implementation of controversial flood prevention rules that would greatly impact the future of shore communities, declaring: “the rules are bad policy from the previous administration that ignored scientific reality and disregarded the concerns of the people most impacted by the regulations.”

Mancini has been a fierce critic of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s rules labeled: Protecting Against Climate Threats: Resilient Environments and Landscapes ( PACT REAL) that were pushed through the DEP by former Gov. Phil Murphy in the waning days of his administration, without any legislative oversight or a vote by the state legislature.
The DEP’s delay will trigger a 60-day comment period that will include a public hearing after the rulemaking proposal is published in the state register in June, according to published reports. Mancini says he will use the comment period work with elected state and municipal officials to change the DEP’s regulations.

“I am very pleased that someone in Gov. Sherrill’s administration had the good sense to pause the implementation of the REAL rules,” said Mancini. He is encouraging all elected officials along the Jersey Shore, as well as every member of the legislature, to oppose the REAL rules in their current form by considering the economic, social and environmental impact of the NJDEP plan.
The mayor of the largest municipality on Long Beach Island, with a summer population of over 100,000 people, has called the REAL rules a case of “bureaucratic bullying.” The DEP’s regulations, he said, are based on speculative science about the future of sea level rises that may never occur. Among other things, the REAL Act requires homes and businesses to be raised 4 feet higher to avoid flooding.

The cost of the DEP’s mandate would, says Mancini, bankrupt many homeowners and force municipalities to raise taxes to comply with the new rules.

“If the goal of DEP is to make the Jersey Shore unaffordable for all but the wealthiest people, then they succeeded. However, I don’t think that’s what the majority of our state legislative representatives want to do. I urge them to stand up to the DEP now, before it is too late,” said Mancini.

“As it stands now, the DEP wants property owners and municipal and county governments to spend untold millions of dollars to avoid a flooding risk that has a 17 percent chance of occurring in the next 74 years. That kind of expenditure makes no sense outside of Trenton and it ignores scientific reality,” said Mancini.

REVISED CLIMATE PREDICTIONS
The mayor said the DEP must consider the latest changes in climate science issued last month that retreated from the dire predictions of environmental Armageddon that have been pushed as likely outcomes instead of worst-case scenarios. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/climate/emissions-worst-case-scenario-rcp.html?eafs_enabled=false

“Now, after 20 years of dire warnings that our beaches will disappear, we are learning that those claims are wildly exaggerated, We have been victimized by scientists and politicians engaging in fear mongering and using the worst case scenarios of climate change to propel government regulations that they wanted, not regulations that deal with the reality of climate change and how people and nations are already addressing it,” said Mancini.

The Long Beach mayor noted that New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul recently signed that state’s FY 2027 budget that rolled back New York's 2019 climate act mandating a 40 percent emissions reduction by 2030. The new timeline calls emissions reduction by 2040. Hochul cited concerns over "crushing costs" on New York businesses and residents if the emissions targets for 2030 were implemented. She said the emissions targets had become "costly and unattainable.”

Mancini has similarly argued that the state DEP and the Murphy Administration failed to consider the economic impact of the costs of implementing the REAL Act and predicted that, if implemented, the rules would drive middle class people from the Jersey Shore. Only the wealthiest individuals would be able to afford a beach house.

He added that the REAL rules come with no state funding. “The DEP is imposing another mandate that the state cannot to pay for. If the REAL Act is allowed to stand it will spell economic disaster for homeowners, businesses and for the seasonal economies that rely on tourism and recreation,” said Mancini.

LOCAL SOLUTIONS

Mancini said many Jersey Shore towns have been aggressively addressing climate change on their own. Long Beach and its neighbors have devised a Resilient LBI Action Plan to prepare for future climate conditions, natural hazards and innovative climate mitigation strategies.

“All of us who live at the Jersey Shore have a vested interest in protecting our communities. We have studied the climate issue. And we are already doing what we believe is effective, practical and affordable. We do not need unreasonable, unfunded state mandates interfering with our ability to do what we believe is in our best interest,” said Mancini.