NJ League of Conservation Voters’ Ed Potosnak to Serve

on Murphy Transition Team

New Jersey League of Conservation Voters’ Executive Director Ed Potosnak has been named to Gov.-Elect Phil Murphy’s transition team.

Potosnak comes to the transition having grown the 5-year-old New Jersey Conservation Voters from an organization with $20,000 cash on hand in 2012 to a nonprofit with an eight-person staff and a budget of $1.8 million. It was the first statewide environmental organization to endorse Murphy, four months before the primary.

Potosnak, a former chemistry teacher and president of the Franklin Township Board of Education, will serve on the Environment and Energy committee.

“With the election of Gov. Murphy, New Jersey has a tremendous opportunity to re-claim national leadership on critical environmental issues facing the state. I’m honored to help make Gov.-Elect Murphy’s vision for 100 percent clean energy by 2050 and plans to safeguard drinking water in the Highlands and Pinelands a reality.”

Potosnak led an effort to get a public referendum to the amend the Constitution to dedicate pollution settlements to harmed communities into the ballot, which passed overwhelmingly on Nov. 7. He also serves as chairman of New Jersey Keep It Green, with more than 150 member organizations dedicated to preserving New Jersey’s diminishing open space. The coalition led efforts to establish permanent, sustainable funding for land preservation in the most densely populated state and to release more than $200 million in voter-approved open space funding this year.

He is a local Chamber of Commerce Trustee, and the owner of a construction business.

New Jersey League of Conservation Voters Board Chair Debbie Mans, executive director of NY/NJ Baykeeper, also was named to the Environment and Energy transition team.

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