Highly Touted “Green Amendment” Does Not Include Climate, Public Health, Or Environmental Justice

March 11th, 2024 No comments

Green Activists Scramble To Request Last Minute Amendments In Testimony

Embarrassing Amateur Hour In Trenton

The proposed NJ Constitutional amendment (SCR 43) to provide certain individual rights to a clean environment does not include individual rights regarding a stable climate, protection of public health, and ensuring environmental justice.

The SCR 43 does mention climate, but it defines “climate” not as an individual “right”, but as one of the “public natural resources” that the State holds in Trust (through DEP) under the Public Trust Doctrine, which is legally separate and distinct from Constitutional “rights”. This means that the State (through DEP) is in complete control of the “climate” issue and that people could not bring lawsuits to enforce the climate issue as a right like the other rights created by the Resolution. For example, NJ people could not sue to challenge a DEP permit that failed to consider climate, like the climate case in Montana that is being used by activists.

So “the people” do NOT have this right. This is a glaring error.

Public health is not even mentioned in the SCR 43. Protection of public health is a foundational element of environmental law.

So “the people” do NOT have this right

Environmental Justice is not even mentioned in the SCR 43. The EJ issue has been a priority of the green activists for over a decade and NJ passed an “historic” EJ law just 2 years ago.

So “the people” do NOT have this right

I flagged these key flaws after a 15 minute review of the SCR 43 and wrote about it in my initial post on March 2, see:

The green activists say they’ve been working on this Constitutional amendment for more than 8 years. It was first introduced in the legislature in 2016 – 2017 Legislative session as ACR 259

The green activists have formed a national organization to promote these green amendments and the leader has written a book.

So how is it possible that they failed to include “rights” to establish protections for climate, public health and environmental justice in their SCR 43 Constitutional amendment?

This gross incompetence was revealed during testimony to the Senate Environment Committee on March 7, 2024 (listen to the testimony here). Let me walk you through that testimony, including key excerpts (we always have the receipts for what we write!)

The gross incompetence of failure to include these fundamental issues in the SCR 43 was not the only huge error by the green activists. It was compounded by how they requested amendments to repair these huge flaws in the SCR 43. Follow this, it was a circus:

The basic protocols of legislative lobbying in Trenton are that there are “no surprises”. You never blind side a legislator, especially in public on important and controversial issues like climate, EJ and public health. And that goes double for a Committee Chairman.

That means that if you are going to request amendments to a piece of legislation, you must do this before the hearing. You never, ever, waltz into a hearing and during testimony blind side the Chairman (and sponsors) with amendment requests. You first contact the sponsor privately and get their approval and after that you reach out to the Chairman to give them a heads up and request that the amendments be drafted (OLS aides draft amendments in bill form).

So, please read the following excerpts (with time stamps) or hit the link and go listen to how Maya van Rossum, the leader of this “green amendment” initiative (and author of a book on the subject) casually requests major amendments at the very close of her testimony.

Maya’s amendment request shocked Committee Chairman Bob Smith, who immediately issued a warning to her to “watch what she says”. Chairman Smith then asked Maya if she’d discussed these amendments with the sponsors and whether the amendments have been drafted.

Maya then dodges the issue and says that amendments are being handled by the Trenton lobbyist, Dave Pringle.

Dave Pringle later testifies and basically says that he didn’t consult with the sponsors and that he has nothing in writing to circulate for review.

Unbelievable incompetence and bungling.

So, here are the excerpts: lets start with Maya van Rossum at time 1:04:40

I do want to highlight, very quickly, just in closing, the green amendment proposal before you, this was put forth 5 years ago. We have spoken with what I call our legislative champions and other advocates and we really would recommend some adjustments we’ve identified over 5 years since the original proposal in 2017. We think that the right to healthy soils and a safe climate should be added as individual rights. … The human health qualities of the environment we recommend be added as well as an explicit environmental justice statement that says the state shall protect these rights equitably for all people. … the first state where the Constitution speaks directly – directly – to ensuring a safe climate for present and future generations.

Gobsmacked, Chairman Smith, who very tightly controls the climate issue and knows where the third rails are, immediately interrupts:

So, a couple of comments. Number one,  I didn’t mention it, … but every word you are saying is being recorded.We have a court stenographer here. We’re going to provide a record of this hearing to all of the legislators …. so be careful what you say, …. it is being recorded”.

Secondly, Maya, have you sent those proposed amendments to (the sponsors) Senator Greenstein and Senator Zwicker?

Maya replies, with a qualifier:

Yes, we have, through my colleague David Pringle …. I believe we have shared them

Smith comes back with:

Well, you might want to resend them, because I’m not quite sure everyone has them or maybe they got lost in the emails.

Pringle, the last to testify, after being named as the consultant who worked on the “amendments” Maya requested, just flat out misleads the Chairman and says: (2:47:30)

I’d like to say its worth the 6 years wait…

We know this isn’t going to be fast tracked. We hope it will be released from Committee soon. We will follow up with appropriate language we’ve been talking about additional information on case studies (sic). This is just the very beginning of the process. Long way to go.

(Yea Dave, a real long way to go. Heckofajob!

Like Maya, Dave can’t count or is spinning history. The Resolution was introduced in the 2016 – 2017 Legislative session. That is 8 years ago, not 6.)

But that was not all.

The hearing began with testimony from Legislators from Pennsylvania and New York who were supposed to brief the Committee on how the constitutional amendment in their states had been implemented. Both witnesses were not familiar with the law, the litigation, or even basic facts of the cases involving the litigation in their states. It was truly embarrassing. Listen to that yourself, I won’t waste my time and yours with excerpts.

Finally, as I wrote last week in a followup piece, the implementation of the “green amendment” in Pennsylvania has been a disaster, see:

And now, because the NJ proposed green amendment does NOT include an individual right to a stable climate, the Montana green amendment case is not even applicable.  Read the national coverage of that by Bloomberg. Both Maya van Rossum and Dave Pringle are quoted in the story, presumably as “experts”!

Montana, Pennsylvania, and New York are the only states with green amendments in their bill of rights, said Maya K. van Rossum, founder of Green Amendments for the Generations. But none of those states’ amendments specifically mention climate, relying instead on the environment more broadly.

The Held v. Montana decision was so influential because it paves the way for climate issues, not just water and air quality, to be considered part of states’ green amendments, van Rossum said. Since much of the case was spent arguing that same issue, she said more states could learn to use exact wording in future amendments.

Wow. Maya tells a Bloomberg reporter more states could learn to use exact wording in future amendments” and then the NJ Resolution SCR 43 does not include any wording on a climate right and the wording it does include explicitly does NOT make climate a right, but vests control with the DEP. And then she asks for that amendment during testimony and blindsides the Chairman.

And listen to this fact free whopper from Pringle:

In New Jersey, there’s “strong bipartisan support” for a green amendment, said David Pringle, a consultant and green amendment activist. …

Because New Jersey is so industrialized, “we face environmental problems sooner and more significantly,” Pringle said. He’s optimistic that the state will see a green amendment on the ballot in the next couple of years, he said.

Let me make my own prediction: after the circus testimony (and the business community’s opposition – they came out swinging, which I’ll discuss in the next post) the green amendment is DOA in NJ.

It might get released from Committee to avoid humiliating Chairman Smith, but it will die and never get a Senate floor vote.

Smith was humiliated just weeks ago, when Big Oil and Gas forced him to gut his own proposed Constitutional amendment to ban construction of new fossil power plants, see:

Facing industry oposition, he’s also abandoned his proposals to established standards to define, monetize and collect “natural resource damages” and the work of his forestry task force. After decades in the legislature, he has very little power. (I can tell you from personal experience that he only sponsored the Highlands Act because he was ordered to do so by Gov. McGreevey.)

(Lots more to follow on the NY situation, the implications for democracy, the business community’s opposition, unintended consequences, and a comparison of the far more effective approach I recommend .)

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Save The Children

March 9th, 2024 No comments

What The Hell Has Gone On?

How Did We Get From Love To Permanent War, Climate Chaos, Ecological Collapse, Genocide, Biden, & Trump?

[Update: 3/12/24 – Watch this excellent discussion which explores the question of how Israel descended into mass fascist genocidal madness. ~~~ end update]

Marvin Gaye from his classic 1971 album “What’s Goin’ On”

I just want to ask a question:
Who really cares, to save a world in despair?
Who really cares? (Ohhh)
There’ll come a time (There’ll come a time)
When the world won’t be singing (When the world won’t be singing)
Flowers won’t grow (Flowers won’t grow, no)
Bells won’t be ringin’ (The bells won’t be ringin’)
Who really cares? (Who really cares?)
Who’s willing to try? (Who is willin’ to try?)
To save the world (To save the world)
That’s destined to die (That is destined to die)
When I look at the world (When I look at the world)
It fills me with sorrow (It fills me with sorrow)
Little children today (Children today)
Are really gonna suffer tomorrow (Really suffer tomorrow)
(Oh!) What a shame (What a shame)
Such a bad way to live (Such a bad way to live)
Oh, who is to blame? (Who is to blame?)
We can’t stop living (When we can’t stop living)
(Ohhh!) Live, (Live)
(Live for life) Live for life
(But let live everybody)
Live life for the children (Live life for the children!)
(Oh, for the Children!)
You see, let’s… (Oh!) let’s save the children (Oh)
Let’s…let’s save all the children
(Save the babies! Save the babies!)
(And if you want to love, you got to save the babies!)
(Oh you’ve got the feeling, you’ve got the feeling)
(You will save the babies! All of the children!)

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How’s That “Green Amendment” Working Out In Pennsylvania?

March 8th, 2024 No comments

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(Caption: Figure 1. Part of a dense cluster of wells in Armstrong County and Indiana County. PASDA has another dataset of wells that has even more locations, 220,015 in total as of January 11, 2022.)

Testimony in support of the proposed NJ “Green Amendment” (SCR 43) yesterday highlighted the State of Pennsylvania, which was one of 3 States that have enacted a “Green Amendment” to the State’s Constitution. They did this back in 1971 and the legislative initiative was first introduced in 1969.

There was no mention of the fact that back in 1969, there was a strong and emergent environmental movement that deployed activist tactics and made strong demands, and from outside the system.

But before all that, Pennsylvania made fossil history:

Getting back to SCR 43, in a highly unusual move, the Legislative sponsor of that Constitutional amendment remotely testified to the Committee via Zoom (or some other electronic platform). The man was clearly elderly and not in command of the facts or the law – in fact, he falsely claimed that the Delaware River Basin Commission banned fracking in Pennsylvania portions of the Delaware watershed based on the Green Amendment.

Both my kids went to Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburg and my first love was from a mining town just north of Scranton (her dad was the US Attorney for the Eastern Pennsylvania District appointed by President Jimmy Carter), so there’s a special place in my heart for Pennsylvania, which I wrote about 13 years ago, see: (be sure to take a good look at the photos):

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Here’s just some of the carbon data on Pennsylvania:

For decades, NJ Governors and DEP Commissioners have railed against and filed lawsuits to stop the air pollution “transport” from Pennsylvania that caused NJ to violate Clean Air Act ozone and fine particulate standards.

All this devastation happened during the reign of the “Green Amendment”.

Do you still think it is an effective tool?

[End Note: For a comparison of strategies and tactics, you might want to look at the Sierra Club’s national “Beyond Coal” campaign and the results of the Pennsylvania Chapter.

[Update: here the assessment from anti-fracking activists in Damascus, Pennsylvania:

In 1971, the future of Pennsylvania’s environment looked bright.

From the vantage point of 2023, however, the Environmental Rights Amendment has been a disappointment. From its adoption in 1971 to 2013, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shackled the provision by adopting a narrow balancing test that weighed the environmental harms caused by the challenged actions against their claimed benefits, and permitted the harms unless they “so clearly” outweighed the claimed benefits. With this test the Supreme Court failed to hold the Commonwealth responsible as trustee of the public natural resources, and failed accord the full weight and significance of the constitutional rights contained in the Environmental Rights Amendment.

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The “Green Amendment” Is A White Whale

March 8th, 2024 No comments

No Silver Bullet Can Replace The Hard Work Of Knowledge, Activism, Organizing, And Building Power

No Mention Of The Fact That Corporate Power Captures, Corrupts, & Dominates Government, Law, & Regulation

Activism, Individual Agency, Solidarity, & Collective Action – Not Fear, Despair, & Prozac – Are Solutions To Young People’s Legitimate Mental Health Problems In The Face Of Climate And Ecological Collapse

A Rights Based Litigation Strategy Is Anti-Democratic & Anti-Government Diversion From Necessary Political Work

“That’s not a loophole, its a policy choice” ~~~ Ray Cantor, NJ Business And Industry Association (3/7/24, testimony on SCR 43)

Every word you are saying is being recorded. We have a court stenographer here. We’re going to provide a record of this hearing to all of the legislators …. so be careful what you say, …. it is being recorded” ~~~ Chairman Bob Smith warning to Maya Van Rossum, immediately after she requested an amendment to SCR 43 to include climate and urged NJ to become the first state where the Constitution “speaks directly – directly – to ensuring a safe climate for present and future generations.” (at time 1:10:15)

Part One

Let’s start with the (elephant) whale in the legislative hearing room:

The object of the hunt is a massive white whale, Moby Dick, which, in a previous encounter, maimed the ship’s captain, Ahab, by biting off one of his legs. The self-destructive fury of the quest, much like that of the one we are on, assures the Pequod’s destruction. And those on the ship, on some level, know they are doomed — just as many of us know that a consumer culture based on corporate profit, limitless exploitation and the continued extraction of fossil fuels is doomed. […]

Those who see where we are going lack the fortitude to rebel. Mutiny was the only salvation for the Pequod’s crew. It is our only salvation. But moral cowardice turns us into hostages. ~~~ “We Are All Aboard The Pequot” (Chris Hedges)

Yesterday, the NJ Senate Environment Committee held a hearing to take testimony on Senate Concurrent Resolution 43, to amend the NJ Constitution to provide various rights to a clean and safe environment. You can listen to the testimony here.

Listening to the testimony this morning validated almost all of the criticisms I have of my former environmental colleagues. They are lazy, cowards, opportunists, and simply can’t tell the truth. Let me offer just 3 examples:

1) The “green amendment” in Pennsylvania (enacted way back in 1971) was touted as a model, and the leading case cited was a 2013 Supreme Court decision that basically ruled that local governments could zone to prohibit fracking. That was a huge victory for anti-fracking activists.

That legal victory should have prompted a tidal wave of local government zoning ordinances to ban fracking across Pennsylvania. But that would require a LOT of good old fashioned grassroots organizing and lobbying of local governments. Sadly, that never happened – activists did essentially nothing with this huge legal victory.

But instead of that, take a look at what actually happened (source: Frack tracker)

(Caption: Figure 1. Part of a dense cluster of wells in Armstrong County and Indiana County

PASDA has another dataset of wells that has even more locations, 220,015 in total as of January 11, 2022.

2) Here in NJ, over 30 years ago (1990), clean water activists won a huge legal victory when the NJ Supreme Court killed a toxic ocean wastewater discharge from the notorious Ciba-Geigy chemical manufacturing plant in Toms River. The Court ruled that the DEP had failed to conduct a legally mandatory “anti-degradation review” during the permit process.

Again, that legal victory should have prompted hundreds of challenges to DEP water pollution permits, virtually none of which had conducted the required anti-degradation review the Court cited as the basis for killing the Ciba-Geigy DEP permit. And again, the NJ environmentalists did nothing with that huge legal win and they still do nothing with it. Yet anti-degradation policy was the basis of the DEP “Category One” waters 300 foot wide buffer regulations and the Highlands Act (but not because environmental groups demanded it – it was because I drafted those provisions of the Act!)

3) The final witness to testify was a teacher at Hopewell Valley Central High School (both my kids graduated from that school). She presented stunning data on the mental health problems of young people in the face of climate and ecological collapse, citing this study from The Lancet:

Findings

Respondents across all countries were worried about climate change (59% were very or extremely worried and 84% were at least moderately worried). More than 50% reported each of the following emotions: sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty. More than 45% of respondents said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning, and many reported a high number of negative thoughts about climate change (eg, 75% said that they think the future is frightening and 83% said that they think people have failed to take care of the planet). Respondents rated governmental responses to climate change negatively and reported greater feelings of betrayal than of reassurance. Climate anxiety and distress were correlated with perceived inadequate government response and associated feelings of betrayal.

But this teacher seemed to believe that passing a Constitutional amendment – whose implementation would be totally reliant on expensive lawyers, arguing esoteric legal concepts, conducted in closed courtroom proceedings with no public input or democratic control, decided by one person (predominantly white, male, old and right wing) – was somehow the emotional salve to these mental health traumas!

The most effective psychological relief for this very real trauma and suffering of the children is LEARNING AND ACTIVISM! Learning, activism, solidarity, organizing, civic participation in governing, and collective action cultivate individual agency, empowerment, and build self confidence, not helplessness and despair.

As my good friend Bill Neil once wrote, we need “Citizens, Not Spectators”.

But the proposed SCR 43 totally defeats activism and civic engagement!

Another example of a totally misguided but well meaning person.

But I’m getting way ahead of myself. Lets get back to the testimony on SCR 43.

I wrote a critical set up piece last week, see:

In terms of the hearing testimony, Ray Cantor, NJ BIA gets the quote of the day. He and other Big Oil and corporate lobbyists defended the corrupted status quo because he knows his corporate members own it.

No need to take my word for it, just read the scholarly work of Princeton political scientist Martin Gilens, who wrote:

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. (“Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens”, 2014)

Or read another Princeton political scientist, Sheldon Wolin’s book “Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy And The Specter Of Inverted Totalitarianism”. Wolin goes into great detail to explain how democracy has been hollowed out and captured by corporate power.

But, unfortunately, the environmental groups backing SCR43 could somehow not muster the courage to tell these truths: the system is rigged, captured, and corrupt to the core.

Instead, they all pulled punches and tapped danced around by claiming that there were “loopholes” and “gaps”  and “unknown problems” in the current body of environmental law and regulation.

Before I get into writing about the hearing, we need to lay out some basic strategy considerations.

The real questions to ask are:

“how do we fix it?”

“How do we make government protect the public interest, not corporate interests?”

“What are the most effective strategies and tactics to build the kind of political power required to struggle against corporate power that has captured government and flip the script?

Corporations have lots of money, scientists, lawyers, and lobbyists. These highly paid professionals have created the framework of environmental laws and regulations currently in place and they have tremendous undue influence on the implementation of those laws and regulations, as well as the media’s coverage of those issues. Those are their strengths.

Corporations do not have public support. Corporations don’t have the facts, the science, and the public interest. Those are their weaknesses.

Environmental groups lack money, scientists, lawyers, and lobbyists that can remotely compete with the corporate resources. Those are their weaknesses. Environmental groups have strong public support and an ability to frame issues and generate media. Those are their strength.

History has shown that incremental reforms have been made by a combination of factors: activism and political organizing, media,

Part Two

So, let’s weigh those comparative strengths and weaknesses in light of SCR 43.

SCR 43 is a rights based litigation strategy.

That strategy relies on money, scientists, and lawyers. Those are corporate strengths and environmental weaknesses. Oh my: this one’s for you Janine Bauer

A decade after the Flint water crisis was exposed, the city’s residents still haven’t been compensated from the $626 million legal settlement. Meanwhile, the lawyers and the administrators have already received millions in fees…And Flint still doesn’t have clean water.

Litigation strategies do not lend themselves to public involvement. (to be continued … more to follow in Part Two coming soon)

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Murphy DEP Urged To Upgrade Protections For Unregulated Streams, Groundwaters, And Forests In The Highlands

March 7th, 2024 No comments

Petition For Rulemaking To Upgrade DEP Surface And Groundwater Standards 

The Highlands Water Protection And Planning Act (Act) was a political compromise. In order to get a bill passed through the Legislature, Gov. McGreevey had to make concessions to local governments in the Highlands and to Republican Legislators.

The biggest compromise is the structure of the Act that divides the Highlands region into a “Preservation Area” and a “Planning Area”. That framework is political and has no scientific basis or land use policy rationale.

Both DEP regulatory protections and the Highlands Council’s Regional Master Plan (RMP) are mandatory in the Preservation Area but are voluntary in the Planning Area, where local land use plans and zoning control development.

The Highlands Act supplemented and is in addition to DEP’s existing statutory authority and regulatory standards. The Act did not block DEP regulation in the Planning Area.

The Highlands Act leaves the Planning Area virtually unprotected from over-development, despite the fact that the legislature found that “exceptional” natural resources must be protected by more stringent DEP regulatory standards (emphasis mine)

The Legislature further finds and declares that the New Jersey Highlands is an essential source of drinking water, providing clean and plentiful drinking water for one-half of the State’s population, including communities beyond the New Jersey Highlands, from only 13 percent of the State’s land area; that the New Jersey Highlands contains other exceptional natural resources such as clean air, contiguous forest lands, wetlands, pristine watersheds, and habitat for fauna and flora, includes many sites of historic significance, and provides abundant recreational opportunities for the citizens of the State. […]

The Legislature further finds and declares that the protection of the New Jersey Highlands, because of its vital link to the future of the State’s drinking water supplies and other key natural resources, is an issue of State level importance that cannot be left to the uncoordinated land use decisions of 88 municipalities, seven counties, and a myriad of private landowners; that the State should take action to delineate within the New Jersey Highlands a preservation area of exceptional natural resource value that includes watershed protection and other environmentally sensitive lands where stringent protection policies should be implemented; that a regional approach to land use planning in the preservation area should be established to replace the existing uncoordinated system; that such a new regional approach to land use planning should be complemented by increased standards more protective of the environment established by the Department of Environmental Protection for development in the preservation area of the New Jersey Highlands; that the new regional planning approach and the more stringent environmental regulatory standards should be accompanied, as a matter of wise public policy and fairness to property owners, by a strong and significant commitment by the State to fund the acquisition of exceptional natural resource value lands; and that in the light of the various pressures now arrayed against the New Jersey Highlands, these new approaches should be implemented as soon as possible.

The DEP has regulatory authority to adopt land use and water resource standards that can strengthen protections in the un-regulated and vulnerable 400,000 acre Planning Area.

The legal basis for these standards pre-dated and is independent of the Highlands Act, so DEP can pull the trigger and adopt these stricter standards at any time, with adequate legislative policy findings, scientific basis, and formally adopted existing regulations.

Those State laws and regulations include: The Flood Hazard Act; The Freshwater Wetlands Act; The Stormwater Management Act, The Watershed Protection Act, The Water Supply Management Act, The Water Quality Planning Act, and the Clean Water Act (Water Pollution Control Act), including DEP adopted implementation regulations.

But the DEP is NOT using these regulatory powers and therefore is NOT protecting the Highlands from over-development and other destructive practices, like logging.

Therefor, in keeping with the intent of the Highlands Act and legislative findings of “exceptional natural resource” values (a term of art in DEP regulations),I am now drafting and will be submitting a petition for rulemaking to the DEP. The petition will demand the following more stringent regulatory standards be adopted in the Highlands Planning Area to protect “exceptional natural resources”:

  • Upgrade all surface waters to FW 1 and/or “exceptional” Category One waters under the Surface Water Quality Standards;
  • Upgrade all groundwaters to Class I-A “exceptional” classification under the Ground Water Quality Standards;
  • Upgrade all wetlands to “exceptional value wetlands” under the Wetlands rules;
  • Revoke the current 30 year old voluntary BMP Manual for Forestry and subject any forest disturbance or tree cutting (logging) on public AND private land to all DEP land use and water quality standards.

I am putting DEP on notice via this post in the highly unlikely event that they would like to preempt, take credit for, and announce these upgrades themselves.

Via this post, I also am seeking the support of the Highlands Coalition, Sierra Club, NJ Conservation Foundation, Environment NJ, NJ Environmental Federation, and all other State and local groups seeking to protect natural resources. I’m not holding my breath in wait for that.

We expect the petition to be filed soon and will post it when we do.

[Update: As it’s the 20 year anniversary of the Highlands Act, I reached out to the original sponsors I worked with for assistance:

———- Original Message ———-
From: Bill WOLFE <>
To: senbsmith <SenBSmith@njleg.org>, sengreenstein <sengreenstein@njleg.org>, “senmckeon@njleg.org” <senmckeon@njleg.org>
Cc: “shawn.latourette@dep.nj.gov” <shawn.latourette@dep.nj.gov>, “Sean.Moriarty@dep.nj.gov” <Sean.Moriarty@dep.nj.gov>, “john.cecil@dep.nj.gov” <john.cecil@dep.nj.gov>, “sitka@comcast.net” <sitka@comcast.net>, Timothy Whitehouse <twhitehouse@peer.org>, “OLSAideSEN@njleg.org” <OLSAideSEN@njleg.org>
Date: 03/07/2024 2:11 PM EST
Subject: Legislators Urged To Upgrade Protections For Unregulated Streams, Groundwaters, And Forests In The Highlands
Dear Senators Smith, Greenstein, and McKeon:
We would welcome and invite your sponsorship of legislation to accomplish the much needed natural resource protections sought by this DEP petition for rulemaking discussed below.
As I worked with you in drafting of S1, the introduced version of the Highlands Act 20 years ago, I am available to assist you in this endeavor.  What an appropriate 20 year anniversary present.
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