NJ Democrats Still Have No Strategy Or Plan To Respond
I’ve been writing to NJ Legislators and the Murphy DEP Commissioner for months now, urging them to develop a strategy to respond to the Trump “dismantling of the administrative state”, including making specific procedural and substantive recommendations on how to do so.
So today, I read with interest a NY Times editorial that urged State policymakers to “get creative with State policies“, see:
I sent legislators and DEP Commissioner LaTourette an excerpt of #2 on the NY Times’ list, because I’ve been saying exactly the same thing.
I have been recommending a strategy to block the Trump rollbacks whereby the DEP (or Legislature) could adopt the federal regulations and programs and scientific and technical information under NJ State law as NJ State regulations.
Those recommendations included a petition for rulemaking designed to block Trump clean air rollbacks of hazardous air pollutant protections that was published in the May 5, 2025 edition of the NJ Register and another petition for rulemaking to block Trump EPA rollback of a Clean Water Act permit program to limit the discharge of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” into NJ drinking water sources.
The NY Times wrote:
“2. Get creative with state policies.
Josh Green, governor of Hawaii: In May, Hawaii became the first state to pass a climate impact fee that will enable us to protect ourselves against future climate-related disasters like the devastating Maui fires. A small 0.75 percent increase in the hotel tax for all travelers to Hawaii will generate $100 million per year, which may also be used to bond $1 billion annually. These resources will fund new research, development and deployment of strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change, such as reducing carbon emissions, protecting and restoring ecosystems and building climate-resilient infrastructure and communities. This is just one example of how state and local governments can take control of their own fates and survive harsh federal cuts.”
I closed my note today with this repeated question:
What are you doing to be creative, take control of NJ’s fate, and protect NJ’s interests from the Trump dismantling?
Of course they ignore me, but can they just ignore The NY Times too?