I have written a plethora of columns on the catastrophe that President Donald Trump is for America. In terms of ethics and integrity, he makes Richard Nixon look like the epitome of good character.

Trump’s foreign policy will be noted in history by his appeasement of authoritarian dictators, such as North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his alienation of our traditional NATO allies. He has endangered the future of the American economy by the gargantuan deficits created by his tax cut and by his foolhardy trade wars.

His inhumane immigration policies regarding DACA and border separation of children from parents are a reflection of this president’s innate racism, bigotry, and xenophobia. Yet even more deleterious in terms of long-term impact are Trump’s environmental policies.

Trump will be leaving the presidency on or before January 20, 2021. Yet the destructive impact on climate and national health and safety of his pro-industry, malevolently anti-science environmental policies will remain long after his departure from the Oval Office.

Early in his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump advocated the extremist position of abolition of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He retreated from this position later in the campaign,

Upon taking office, however, he embarked on a massive environmental deregulation and cutback in enforcement effort which has reduced EPA to the status of virtual governmental impotence. This is a tragedy also for the career employees at EPA, who are among the most competent and dedicated public officials I have worked with in my career.

Gov. Murphy’s Environmental Budget Falls Short

In this era of Trump’s assault on the environment, it is absolutely essential that state governments step up to the plate, particularly by increased enforcement. One would have expected New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to do so, given the pro-environmental positions he espoused in the 2017 campaign.

Yet while Phil Murphy has environmentally speaking continued to talk the talk, he has absolutely failed to walk the walk. His proposed FY 2020 budget for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) leaves the department woefully short of the resources and staff for this department to compensate in some significant way for Donald Trump’s abandonment of the environment.

New Jersey budgets are a reflection of a governor’s priorities. The following fiscal data regarding NJDEP during the Murphy administration shows that this purportedly Progressive Democratic governor gives an astoundingly low priority to environmental protection.

The FY2018 Adjusted Appropriated NJDEP budget Murphy inherited from Governor Chris Christie was $321,067,000. For FY2019, Murphy enacted an NJDEP budget which featured an overall reduction of 14.3% ($46 million) to $275 million. Within that budget, Governor Murphy tried to reduce operations funding by 3% but the legislature restored that money.

In the FY2020 Overall Proposed Budget, the NJDEP budget has been reduced by 17.8% in the spending plan and operations funding by 10%. Operations funding is down by $27 million.

The proposed FY2020 budget still diverts money out of the NJDEP from programs such as the Spill Act and the Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund, and Clean Communities, amounting to at least $80 million.

Other Funds: Governor Murphy took $160 million from the Clean Energy Fund FY2019 budget. In FY2020, $87.1 million will be taken from the Clean Energy Fund.

Staff: Last year NJDEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe committed staff numbers to being 100 above from last year, at 2700 employees, but currently NJ DEP staff is 200 below at 2500 staffers. Staff numbers are lower than when Chris Christie was Governor.

The following gives an historical perspective as to what has happened to NJDEP staffing levels over the past decade.

2018: 2,600 employees

2008: 3,400 employees

Mid 1990s: 4,400 employees

Phil Murphy is ‘Making a Game-Losing Error’ for the Environment

All this led to a contentious exchange at the April 8, 2019 Assembly Budget Committee meeting between Assemblyman John McKeon (D-27), a former Assembly Environmental Committee Chair and NJDEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe, which was reported by InsiderNJ (https://www.insidernj.com/budget-flare-mckeon-mccabe-spar-assembly-budget-hearing/)

I know Catherine McCabe very well. While I served as Region 2 EPA Administrator during the administration of George W. Bush, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. There is no doubt that she is a public official of the highest integrity with total dedication to the protection of the environment and climate of this planet. She has never commented to me in any adverse way about Governor Phil Murphy; nor has she made any critical comment to me about the Murphy NJDEP budget, which she is obligated to defend. Yet it is clear to me that Phil Murphy gives a far lesser commitment to environmental protection than does Catherine McCabe.

I also have a high regard for the career professionals at NJDEP, with whom I worked in close cooperation while I served as Region 2 EPA Administrator. Yet I fear that the inadequacy of the Murphy NJDEP budget will have a demoralizing effect on the department, possibly leading to the departure of key officials.

In his 2017 campaign for governor, Phil Murphy properly focused on the destructive impact of Trumpian policies on New Jersey. He is a Boston Red Sox fan. Yet unlike great Red Sox Hall of Fame hitters like Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski, when it comes to his opportunity to curb the toxic effect of Trump environmental policies, Phil Murphy isn’t even stepping up to the plate. And like Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner in Game Six of the 1986 World Series, Phil Murphy is making a game losing error in the environmental arena.

Alan J. Steinberg served as Regional Administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as Executive Director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission under former New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman.