Good News, Murphy Repeals Christie’s Bad Enviro EO’s

Governor Murphy today signed an Executive Order establishing new regulatory principles to foster economic growth and government efficiency, as well as protect the environment, health, safety, and welfare of New Jersey’s residents and communities. This Executive Order rescinds and replaces Governor Christie’s Executive Order No 1 and 2 (2010), which outlined the regulatory principles of the prior administration. These EO’s were designed to weaken and roll back environmental protections.

“This is very good news that Governor Murphy has repealed Executive Order 1 and 2. These rules were designed to delay and block us from moving forward on environmental standards and protections. These executive orders were designed as part of Christie’s war on the environment to actually bock and roll back important environmental rules. This was part of his Red Tape Review which were put in place to weaken protections in New Jersey,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “These rules were written by ALEC funded by Koch brothers as a way to stop environmental progress. It is important that Governor Murphy has repealed these rules,”

Many of Governor Christie’s Executive Orders (EO) and Red Tape Review Group policies came directly from ALEC and the Koch brothers, especially EO 2 which sets up agency waiver procedures and calls for no state rules stricter than federal standards.

“Executive Order 1 and 2 were a one-two punch by Christie to promote his national career at the expense of New Jersey environment. This is part of his attacks on the environment and public health. These rollbacks were an integral part of his Red Tape reviews which were designed to side with corporate polluters over environmental protections. These rules were used to block drinking water standards for chemicals like PFOA and rollback protections for clean water, clean air and groundwater. It would also make it easier to push for fossil fuels and pipelines and block public beach access,” said Tittel. “EO2 says no NJ says should be stricter than federal rules which stopped us moving forward on environmental protections. We could adopt new standards for specific reasons which takes more time to move forward, this just happened with PFAS.”

Among the directives to improve New Jersey’s regulatory structure, Governor Murphy’s Order requires State agencies to. Seek to develop state-level regulatory frameworks and cooperate with other states where appropriate when federal regulation is inadequate to protect the environment, health, safety, and welfare of New Jersey’s residents and communities. The Order will take effect on June 1, 2019.

“Now since the rule is repealed, there is no excuse for the Murphy Administration not to move forward with regulations. This is especially critical when the Trump Administration is rolling back protections and regulations for our clean air, clean water, and open space. We thank the Governor for protecting New Jersey and it’s environment. The legislature should also move forward with A5033 (Pinkin) which would prevent backsliding of state regulations due to federal law changes,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “It’s important that the Governor got rid of EO1 and EO2. We have asked since day one for Governor Murphy to get rid of EO2 and he finally did.”