Pollution, overdevelopment, and years of government inaction are placing a growing strain on the state’s water supply
By Jeff Tittel, The Jersey Vindicator, May 17, 2026
New Jersey’s drought crisis is no longer simply about a lack of rain. It is about decades of political failure, weak environmental planning, overdevelopment, polluted waterways, and a state government that continues to ignore the growing threat to our water supply.
Today, the entire state is experiencing drought conditions, with nearly half under severe drought, and those conditions continue to expand. Reservoirs remain below normal, groundwater levels are depleted, and stream flows in many regions are 75% to 90% below normal. Yet despite these warning signs, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has failed to implement the aggressive conservation measures, planning reforms, and pollution controls needed to protect public health and the environment.
New Jersey has serious water problems and could become the first state on the East Coast to run out of water. This is because we face major issues with both water quality and quantity due to overdevelopment and a legacy of toxic pollution. The drought is exposing the reality that New Jersey’s water system is badly broken.
TRENTON – In an effort to reduce the negative environmental impacts on historically overburdened communities and to lower energy costs for low-income households, the Senate Environment and Energy Committee advanced legislation sponsored by Senators Troy Singleton and John McKeon.
“All New Jerseyans – regardless of their ZIP code or income – deserve to have access to clean energy, the career opportunities enabled by the transition to clean energy, as well as the health and environmental benefits that will follow,” said Senator Singleton (D-Burlington). “By establishing this Office in statute, and requiring that the most overburdened communities have access to the many benefits of clean energy, we will ensure that everyone can attain affordable clean energy.”
“Decades of systemic racism and inequity have forced many urban and vulnerable communities to bear the brunt of polluting energy infrastructure. The same communities disproportionately face the impacts of climate change and are often the least equipped to prepare for, respond to, and recover from its effects,” said Senator McKeon (D-Essex/Passaic). “As we work toward a clean energy future, we must prioritize righting these wrongs and ensure these families are not only protected, but also experience real improvements in their quality of life. The Office of Clean Energy Equity will provide a dedicated vehicle to deliver tangible change in historically overburdened neighborhoods.”
The bill, S1757, would establish the Office of Clean Energy Equity within the Board of Public Utilities (BPU), tasked with promoting and overseeing an equitable transition to clean energy. The Office would seek to ensure that clean energy programs and their benefits are targeted toward the communities most impacted by the placement of polluting facilities and thus forced to contend with the negative health impacts. The BPU would be required to direct no less than 10 percent of its annual total clean energy budget, or at least $50 million annually, whichever amount is greater, to the new Office to effectuate its goals.
The legislation would also set specific goals and requirements to direct clean energy investments to low-income households and overburdened communities. Specifically, the BPU would be required to establish onsite or community solar programs with the objective of benefitting 250,000 low-income households, or 35 percent of the state’s low-income households, whichever is larger, within 10 years of the Office of Clean Energy Equity’s establishment. This provision aims to reduce low-income households’ average energy costs to below 6% of household income. The BPU would also be required to establish at least 1,600 megawatt-hours of energy storage to benefit overburdened communities within 10 years of the Office of Clean Energy Equity’s establishment.
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Under the Department of Energy order, the PJM Interconnection can curtail power to data centers with backup generation as a last resort before instituting rolling blackouts.
The PJM Interconnection can curtail data centers and other large loads that have backup generation under an emergency order issued Monday by the U.S. Department of Energy.
PJM on Sunday asked to direct transmission owners and electric utilities in its Mid-Atlantic and Midwest footprint to curtail those facilities, if needed, for three days starting May 18 due to hot weather combined with planned power plant maintenance outages.
PJM said it expected to have less than 5,800 MW of reserves during its May 18 peak, and that Maryland and Virginia could be especially stressed by the unseasonably hot weather.
A $150 million streetscape project will transform South Broad Street’s Avenue of the Arts with trees, public art, traffic calming, and redesigned medians and sidewalks, starting this winter.
Both the median strip and sidewalks on South Broad Street will feature landscaping and art as part of a new streetscape planned to eventually extend from City Hall south to Washington Avenue. The first phase, from Spruce to Pine Streets, is pictured in this rendering.
By Peter Dobrin, Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 14, 2026
Lush landscaping and public art will soon line Broad Street, impromptu performances may pop up, and vehicular traffic will be calmed with a new Avenue of the Arts south streetscape about to take shape.
The project — estimated to take $150 million and a decade to realize — will begin modestly.
The actual construction is slated to start at the end of January on a small portion of the project: remaking the median strip between Spruce and Pine Streets. That phase is expected to be completed by June.
In 2027, after the anticipated swell in tourism and street activity during the Semiquincentennial ends, sidewalk beautification will begin on both the east and west sides of that block.
Eventually, pending funding, all of the blocks between City Hall and Washington Avenue will be remade.
The argument stemmed from last year’s DA’s race, when Boyer, a political centrist who leads the powerful Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, endorsed Krasner’s challenger.
By Anna Orso, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 19, 2026, 3:45 p.m.
District Attorney Larry Krasner said that all he wanted at Philadelphia’s traditional election day lunch — where local politicians and operatives gather to gab — was some macaroni and cheese.
But he didn’t make it in the front door.
Krasner, the third-term progressive Democrat, was escorted away from the South Restaurant and Jazz Club on Tuesday afternoon after getting into a combative argument with Ryan Boyer, the union leader who hosts the twice-yearly lunch and is considered one of the most powerful unelected people in Philadelphia.
The kerfuffle stemmed from last year’s race for district attorney — when Boyer, a political centrist who leads the powerful Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council — endorsed Krasner’s challenger.
Ryan Boyer at South restaurant in Philadelphia on May 19, 2026. Jessica Griffin / Staff Photographer
Stanford left shortly after the dust-up between Boyer and Krasner, saying public displays of disaffection were not her thing.
Philly District Attorney Larry Krasner
The altercation began while an Inquirer reporter was interviewing Krasner in front of the restaurant on North Broad Street. Boyer attempted to shake Krasner’s hand and welcomed him to the event, and Krasner quickly pivoted to tell Boyer, “You owe me money.”
“I don’t care. You’re talking about me,” Boyer said. “It’s a free society.”
The two briefly argued over whether Krasner eats macaroni and cheese (he says he does) before City Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. intervened to bring down the temperature.
“He’s an honest man,” Krasner said of Jones. “But that’s not what [Boyer] is. How did you get the nickname, Lyin’ Ryan? How did you get that nickname?”
In a court filing, the administration signaled support for Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company in a lawsuit challenging xAI’s generators at a huge Mississippi data center.
The entrance to xAI’s power plant in Southaven, Miss., in February. Photo Credit…Brad J. Vest for The New York Times
The United States government is preparing for a possible intervention to help defend Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company from a lawsuit that accuses the company of illegally operating gas turbines in Mississippi to power a large data center, court filings showed.
The NAACP sued Mr. Musk’s company, xAI, which powers the Grok chatbot, last month, claiming that the company was operating 27 gas turbines without an air permit in Southaven, Miss. It effectively built a power plant for its Colossus 2 data center, sending pollution into nearby neighborhoods, the NAACP claimed.
The A.I. company, now owned by Mr. Musk’s space venture SpaceX, has consistently said that its turbines are mobile and temporary, and thus exempt from more stringent air permitting. It has also pointed out that gas turbines are a cleaner alternative to other forms of power, like coal or diesel generators.
Now, the Justice Department is preparing for a possible intervention in support of Mr. Musk.
