Quesada Mahmoud 2019 Release Joint Statement on Earth Day
Guttenberg, NJ: April 22, 2019. For Immediate Release

Each year, on April 22nd, we celebrate Earth Day which marks the anniversary of the modern environmental movement started in 1970. For decades, brave environmentalists have been standing up to big energy companies and the government to demand we protect the earth from pollution and devastation. Yet, for those same decades very little was done to address the issue of climate change, despite many scientists and energy companies already knowing it was happening.

It’s now 2019, and we’re seeing some of the hottest average temperature rises on record and concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere that’s never before seen on earth. New Jersey is ground zero for the effects of climate change, too. Many parts of NJ will be underwater by 2045. According to Climate Central, NJ is also warming at an alarming rate and it’s making our air harder to breathe. There are more than 700,000 New Jerseyans who suffer from asthma and another 300,000 more live with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Those numbers are rising.

Despite knowing all this, our legislators have done nothing to protect our residents from the toxic and earth-warming effects of these emissions. Democratic senator and mayor of North Bergen, Nick Sacco, is one of the biggest proponents for the development of a toxic gas-fired power plant, called North Bergen Liberty Generating, in our town that will raise greenhouse gases by over 19%. Our two opponents, Angelica Jimenez and Pedro Mejia have yet to say anything about this development for which most people in North Bergen (and 50 towns in Bergen County) disapprove. Their silence is support for a project that will cause immeasurable harm to our community’s most vulnerable. The people of our district demand an affirmative statement on where they stand.

“When you’re adding up balls and strikes, the fact that the energy is going to New York and not New Jersey is a strike.” said Governor Murphy when asked about the North Bergen Liberty Generating Power Plant. So although we have not yet reached a point where we’ve gotten the governor to be a hard “No” on the power plant, it seems that he’s committed to his green energy goals. If he is claiming to be a green energy champion, by not stopping this project in its tracks, he is showing his priorities are not in renewable energy. Nevertheless, the Quesada Mahmoud campaign want to ensure the people hold the governor and every other elected official accountable to their green energy promises especially at a critical time like now.

If New Jersey, according to Governor Murphy, is truly to be 100% renewable by 2050, then building more fossil fuel infrastructure, giving big out-of-state energy companies massive tax breaks, reclassifying land and asking taxpayers to subsidize a power plant is certainly not the way to achieve those goals. The Quesada Mahmoud campaign believes in the complete divestment of fossil fuel and an increased investment in the renewable energy sector as well as the removal of the cost cap for renewable energy projects, which does not exist on other energy sources. We can create thousands of jobs in green energy that just aren’t there anymore for fossil fuel. There is no time for politics. We have less than 12 years, according to the IPCC report, to reduce emissions by half globally or suffer the consequences of “runaway” climate change.

Cities like Hoboken have, as of April, committed their municipal operations to 100% renewable electricity. So why can’t the towns in our district: North Bergen, Guttenberg, West New York, Edgewater, Fairview, Secaucus, Kearny, Harrison & East Newark? We think there’s a lack of political will, and through awareness and civic engagement, we can change that. We need to treat climate change as if our own house was on fire right now. That’s how urgent it is.

Election day for the democratic primary is Tuesday, June 4, 2019.

Learn more about the Quesada Mahmoud 2019 campaign by visiting www.pta2019.us, www.facebook.com/quesadamahmoud, and www.instagram.com/quesadamahmoud/. Follow Roger on Twitter: @RogerBQuesada and Mahmoud: @TherealMahmoud1