Murphy’s First 100 Days: Environmental Score Card, an Honest Assessment

“We sent this out on day 101 in case Governor Murphy did something yesterday on his First 100 days. Unlike the last scorecard we did eight years ago, we now have a Governor who wants to move the environment forward. As we’ve done with every Governor, we look at their record for the First 100 Days to create an honest assessment of what’s gone on and where they’re going environmentally. Murphy has indeed delivered on some of his commitments including blocking offshore drillings, promoting environmental justice, and promoting offshore wind.

“We support Governor Murphy, we endorsed him for Governor and want him to succeed. After eight years of Christie, it is critically important for us to move ahead on the environment. Unlike his predecessor, Murphy is a Governor who supports climate change and clean energy efforts and believes in sea level rise. Unfortunately, we spent almost the entire Christie Administration fighting to stop rollbacks but now we can move forward on a strong environmental agenda for New Jersey. While Murphy has done some great things, he’s also broken commitments and done things to undermine us moving forward on the environment and clean energy.

“After eight years of Christie, we finally have a Governor who supports climate change and clean energy efforts. Christie was consistently given a failing grade and would only have scored less than 10% most of the time. Murphy, on the other hand, is ten times better than Christie. However, he has made may commitments that have ye to be acted on and some that have even been broken. We’re a lot better off than we were under Christie but we have a long way to go,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “If you do not give an accurate account of someone’s record, you end up encouraging them to break more commitments and delay or not move forward with more protections.”

Grade: C

Positive Actions

• Hiring Commissioner McCabe to run the Department of Environment Protection (DEP) will benefit the department. McCabe has integrity and professionalism, as well as many years of experience protecting the environment.
• Governor Murphy has upheld his commitment to offshore wind by signing an Executive Order for 1100 MW of offshore wind. This will begin the process of reaching our eventual offshore wind goal of 3500 MW by 2030.
• His executive order maintains commitments to incorporating environmental justice into state agencies, departments, and plans.
• Governor Murphy promised to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and has signed an Executive Order to do this. Our concern is that it will take two years to implement.
• Governor Murphy as also reversed New Jersey’s position to support Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan.
• The Governor has supported a complete ban on fracking and fracking activities in the Delaware River Basin by the DRBC. However; our concern is, his Administration’s statements recently have been backing away from banning fracking waste in the Basin.
• His new law bans offshore drilling in state waters as well as landing oil drilled in federal waters on our coasts.
• Murphy has halted logging on Sparta Mountain, at least temporarily.

“During his First 100 Days, Governor Murphy has indeed stuck to some of his commitments including blocking offshore drillings, promoting environmental justice, and promoting offshore wind. However, there have been many promises and commitments that have been left unacted upon or are at risk from actions of the Administration,” said Jeff Tittel.

“Environmentalist aren’t wrong that I have broken some of my promises.”- Governor Phil Murphy

Negative Actions

• The Murphy Administration has raided the DEP by $287 million and cut by 14%

o   Governor Murphy has cut DEP funding. This year the agency is allocated $275 million; down from $321 million from last year’s budget.

o   The DEP takes in $120 million more than it spends, however Murphy’s budget is robbing the fund by $80 million

o   They are also diverting $80 million dollars from the DEP and $6 million from operations.

o   Murphy promised to utilize 100% of the Clean Energy Fund to advance energy efficiency, grow the clean-energy economy, create clean-energy jobs and drive down carbon emissions. Instead, $140 million from the CEF is being diverted in this year’s budget. This includes $50 million for lights in government buildings. This is a direct contradiction to his campaign promise to stop the stealing of these funds.

• There is also $272 million in environmental settlements but we don’t know where the money is going

o   The Murphy Administration has opposed our challenge of the Exxon settlement, despite previously calling it unfair.

o   One of the goals of Murphy’s Transition Report was to aggressively pursue Natural Resource Damage (NRD) claims. However, there is $200 million taken into the DEP from natural resource damages but nothing in the budget allocating it towards environment programs.

o   Despite committing to stop raiding environmental settlement funds, the Administration is taking $69 million of the $141 million the state will receive from settlements with Volkswagen involving air-pollution violations and cheating on emissions tests. This will go into the general fund for the state budget. This is funding that is supposed to be going to clean air initiatives, including electric vehicles programs.

• The process for rejoining RGGI has been speculated to take two years. In that time, New Jersey will miss out on revenue and green jobs. And some of the money will not go to the appropriate places.
• When New Jersey starts receiving funds from RGGI, the administration wants to spend it by planting trees and grass instead of targeting funds for environmental justice communities
• The DEP is keeping information from the public on Liberty State Park Caven’s Point proposed golf course. They denied the Sierra Club’s OPRA request twice and will not release RFP and contracts requested. Now a suit is being filed against the DEP under OPRA to release documents regarding contracts and RFP for Caven’s Point in Jersey City.
• New Jersey Transit has made attempts to lease the Hoboken Dry Dock land for the operation of a ferry maintenance and repair facility despite the city’s efforts to acquire the land for public open space. The issue appeared on the NJ Transit agenda until outrage caused them to suspend the proposal.
• The DEP testified in opposition of creating a strong MCL standard for 1,2,3-TCP in drinking water. These chemicals have been found in wells in Moorestown and dozens of other places in New Jersey. The state has not yet set an MCL for it, putting the public at risk.
• Governor Murphy is backing away from blocking pipelines. He has said he has a lot concerns environmentally and economically however he has remained unacted on pipelines

“We understand that Christie left the DEP with a budget hole that will be difficult to get out of. We criticized Christie’s budget for cutting the DEP and raiding funds and should raise those same issues with Murphy, especially because of his commitments during the campaign and transition report. The DEP has 120 million surplus that keeps getting raided, they have the money but the Murphy Administration has to stop stealing. We also understand that it will take time to reverse many of the rollbacks and weakenings from Christie. Our concern is that the process hasn’t been started yet and many of the same DEP employees appointed by Christie to undermine these programs are still in the agency,” said Jeff Tittel.  

Incomplete Actions

• Despite wanting to ensure the continued expansion of the solar industry, while developing a long-term path for growth, the Governor has supported legislation that is greencover for a giant nuclear subsidy. In reality, the “green” energy bill will significantly undermine renewable energy in New Jersey and possibly destroy our state’s solar program altogether. Murphy had opposed the nuclear subsidy originally. The bill is now on his desk and we hope he vetoes or CVs it.
• A dangerous bill to allow DuPont to increase pollution dumping is currently on the Governor’s desk. This bill will put more pollution into the Delaware because it creates a loophole that redefines a hazardous waste facility, allowing them to dump toxic chemicals. We are asking the Governor to veto this bill.
• There is a new proposal for a gas power plant in the Meadowlands. The proposed North Bergen Liberty Generating Project would be one of the largest plants in the state and cost $1.5 billion and send electricity to New York City. We need Murphy to stop this project.
• While Murphy has made promises to stop the bear hunt, no official commitments have been made.

Governor Murphy and his Administration have failed to take any action in the past 100 Days on the following promises and commitments:

• Updating the Energy Master Plan, with the goal of 100% clean energy by 2050.
• Requiring fossil fuel infrastructure projects demonstrate whether there are market-based, cost-effective and clean alternatives (to delay or avoid the project).
• Updating the state’s outdated building codes
• Reinstating the Office of Climate Change
• Reducing incidence of childhood lead poisoning and provide improved services for children already affected.
• Upgrading the state’s aging water infrastructure, including drinking, waste, and storm water.
• Supporting legislation that allows for the creation of local and regional stormwater utilities and subsequent user-fee collection, to support infrastructure and management
• Updating the state Water Supply Plan
• Freezing all pending DEP rule proposals, including Freshwater Wetlands, Coastal Zone Management, and Coastal Area Facility Review Act (CAFRA) rules, until they can be thoroughly reviewed to ensure strong environmental protections are in place. He should order the DEP to review all water regulations that have been weakened over the last 8 years and reverse any rollbacks to those protections
• Appoint people to environmental entities such as the Pinelands Commission and Highlands Council consistent with their conservation mission and respect their independence to protect these critical resources.
• Repealing the relevant parts of Executive Orders 1 and 2

Overall Grade for Governor Murphy’s First 100 Days:       C

“Although were giving Murphy a ‘C’ grade, he’s still ten times better than Governor Christie. We have a lot of belief and optimism that things for the environment in New Jersey can, and will, get better. We are concerned about the lack of openness and transparency in the process, which we believe has lead to some of the mistakes the Administration has made so far. We’re looking forward to getting a lot of things done and moving New Jersey forward environment. We believe that in the future, Murphy’s grades will increase as we work to fight climate change, protect our environment, and promote green energy,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “After 8 years of delay under the Christie Administration, time is of the essence to deal with climate crisis, impacts of sea level rise, and instill important environmental regulations. We need to make up for that time. We have a lot of work to do and it may take us longer than we want but we’re confident that it will get done. We’re also confident that under Murphy, New Jersey can stand up against Trump’s rollbacks. We want to work with the administration so that their grades keep going up. We don’t want to grade on a curve.”