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Just as Murphy BPU About to Release Its Energy Master Plan, A New “Green Campaign”

Divide, Distract, and Divert

To be clear at the outset to avoid any confusion about the title of this post –  this is NOT a criticism of The Green New Deal.

Just the opposite –  I strongly support a Green New Deal – and urge folks to make it a top priority, get behind that effort and do the work to build the public opinion and political power and support necessary to make it a reality.

In fact, if I could pick just 3 things to focus and work on, they would be: 1) The Sanders campaign; 2) the Green New Deal; and 3) demanding that Gov. Murphy impose a moratorium of new fossil infrastructure and that the Murphy BPU Energy Master Plan provide a technically credible and financed path with regulatory teeth to phase out fossil and mandate 100 renewables by a date certain.

With that in mind, now let me get to the topic of this post.

The Murphy Administration’s Board Of Public Utilities is about to release its draft Energy Master Plan:

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) serves as the lead agency and is tasked with the development and oversight of the State’s EMP Committee. To achieve the Governor’s ambitious energy goals, the EMP Committee is organized into five work groups. While the work groups are composed of state agency members, there will be ample public opportunity to comment through a robust stakeholder process. The first opportunity will be a series of stakeholder meetings in September. Following the meetings, the work groups will develop a draft plan and again solicit public feedback in spring 2019, with final presentation of the 2019 Energy Master Plan to Governor Murphy by June 2019.

Yet, despite this critical timing – when activists should be ramping up public engagement to pressure the administration – especially regarding priority #1 which is a demand for Gov. Murphy to impose a moratorium of new fossil infrastructure – the media and “green” activists seem to have gone mute.

No, it’s worse than mute.

Perhaps emulating the national Democrats in declaring another Presidential candidate – the NJ Greens just announced and are working on a new “NJ Green” campaign.

Great fucking timing, eh?

The corporate wing of the national Democratic Party seems to prefer to lose to Trump than to get behind a coalition of left progressives, Democratic Socialists, and the Sanders campaign.

[Update: Jut read this NY Tines story that provides more evidence of that. ~~~ end update]

So, instead of the same cynical corrupt strategy they got caught using in 2016 to sabotage Sanders, this time around they are putting up niche candidates, each seemingly designed to drive a wedge and/or peel off what should be a faction in the Sanders coalition.

That is a losing strategy.

For God’s sake, yesterday I listened to the New Yorker radio hour on NPR interview a Presidential candidate – whose rise none other than Obama had predicted – a young, unknown gay, former military, Harvard educated, charismatic, Mayor from Indiana. This guy’s flavor of the month – I mean top priority – was democratic reform. (Did I say he was young and focused “inter-generational equity”? An obvious move to peel off Sanders’  Sunrise Movement folks, and play to the reactionary resentments of libertarians like the Google Tech heads about their burdens in paying for Social Security and health care).

Today, NPR reported that Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan just announced – are there 17 or 18 now? Does that mean Biden is dropping out of the bid for chasing the so called lost white working man’s vote?

But let’s get back to the topic of this post.

Here’s the email I was just forwarded that prompted the post (not surprisingly, the “greens” who wrote it didn’t send it to me, knowing I’d probably write this harsh criticism):

Do you think it’s time that your rights to clean air, pure water, and a healthy environment are protected in the New Jersey State Constitution?

Join us for an in depth conversation about the proposed New Jersey Green Amendment, how it can help New Jerseyans, and how you can get involved in its passage.

Featured speakers:
Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper
Elliott Ruga, NJ Highlands Coalition
David Pringle, David Pringle Associates
Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club

And they are featuring speakers Eliot Ruga (a know nothing former TV technician) and Dave Pringle (a discredited and unprincipled transactionalist collaborator with Gov. Christie).

Is this new “Green Campaign” the product of a Foundation grant?

If you want context for this campaign and its likely results, look no farther than to Pennsylvania.

There, these same “green” activists won a huge State Supreme Court victory when the Court issued a decision on a constitutional question that effectively empowered local government to use land use controls to ban fracking.

So what did they do with this huge win?

They proceeded to do virtually nothing to organize a real statewide campaign to work with local government to ban fracking! But instead they focused on FERC and federal lawsuits.

Now, they do the top down opposite in NJ, and at exactly the wrong time, and with the wrong people.

How much worse can it get?