TRENTON – Senator John McKeon (D-Essex/Passaic) issued the following statement in response to a United Nations report showing that the Earth’s climate is more out of balance than at any time in human history, as well as the Trump Administration’s decision to pay $1 billion to cancel offshore wind leases and invest in fossil fuel projects instead:

“The latest report from the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization makes one thing abundantly clear: our planet is in a severe climate crisis. Record-shattering levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are causing the Earth to absorb more energy from the Sun, leading to the ocean heating up at an unprecedented rate. The consequences are not foreign to any of us. We have already begun to see more disasters, from increasingly destructive storms, flash floods, deadly heat waves, and rising sea levels. The long-term damage from our inaction will be felt for centuries, both in New Jersey and around the world.

“It is at this critical moment of our planet’s climate crisis that President Donald Trump and his administration decided to pay over $1 billion of taxpayer funds to halt offshore wind developments in New York and North Carolina, which would have provided carbon-neutral green energy to millions of people. It is appalling that additional taxpayer funds will be used to help finance new fossil fuel infrastructure, including a natural gas plant in Texas. At a time when we should be accelerating the transition to clean, renewable energy, this administration is instead subsidizing polluters and exacerbating the problem.

“New Jersey must remain steadfast on its path to clean energy—grounded in science, accountability to its residents, and committed to a cleaner, more resilient future for everyone. We will continue to invest in renewable energy and aim to hold polluters accountable for the havoc they continue to wreak on our planet. We must acknowledge that President Trump is in Big Oil's pocket and that there is no logical explanation as to why the United States should continue to invest in fossil fuels, other than to enrich industry executives at our expense. The stakes could not be higher, and we cannot afford to wait any longer.”