Rutgers Students, Climate Marchers Rally in New Brunswick in Support of Polluters Pay Act

Day 5 of 50-mile march from Newark to Trenton draws students, faculty, and community leaders calling on Big Oil to pay for New Jersey's climate costs

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Rutgers students, faculty, and community leaders rallied at The Yard at College Ave today as part of a week of action and 50 mile march from Newark to Trenton, urging state lawmakers to pass the Polluters Pay Act (S2338/A3735) before finalizing the state budget.

"Young people are inheriting a climate crisis we didn’t create. It’s on all of us to fight back,” said Morgan Garrow, a graduating Rutgers senior and outgoing co-President of Rutgers Students for Environmental Action (SEA). “I’ve dedicated the past four years to tackling environmental and social justice issues in New Jersey and New Brunswick. It starts with each and every one of us telling our university administration, the City of New Brunswick, the New Jersey Legislature, and Governor Mikie Sherrill that we will not let our college, our city, or our state be overtaken by the wealthiest minority at the top. We will make them pay."

Middlesex County families have been repeatedly battered by flooding, with residents across New Brunswick, Highland Park, and Edison still recovering from damage caused by recent storms. Local taxpayers, ratepayers, and small businesses have absorbed those costs while the fossil fuel companies most responsible for climate damage have paid nothing.

Students were joined at the rally by state and local officials.

"If they’re polluting, they gotta pay," said Assemblyman Joseph Danielsen (D-Franklin). "People should not pay with their lives or their pocketbooks. If you’re polluting, you gotta be paying.”

“We need to organize and put upward grassroots pressure on legislative leadership, and let it be known that this bill is necessary for our future, for the livelihoods of not only ourselves, but our children,” said Highland Park Borough Councilman Matthew Hersh. “We need the state to step up. We need to hold polluters accountable.”

New Brunswick was the third rally this week in support of the Polluters Pay Act. The bill would require the world's largest fossil fuel companies to pay $50 billion over 20 years for flood protection, infrastructure, and disaster response.

“We want the world’s worst and largest climate polluters to pay for the damage they’ve caused.  These are corporations that made trillions of dollars, who knew that what they were doing would damage our climate, and continue to force their destructive business model on us,” said Charlie Kratovil, Senior Organizer at Food & Water Watch and emcee of the rally. “We are united in demanding that before our Legislature passes a budget and raises any more taxes from the people, that they make polluters pay.”

The Polluters Pay Act has 63 legislative cosponsors and is backed by more than 75 municipal and county governments and a statewide coalition of labor, environmental, faith, and social justice groups.

Marchers will rally in Princeton on Wednesday before reaching the State House in Trenton on Thursday, May 7.