Permit giveaways, budget raids, and weakened enforcement are reshaping NJ environmental agency.

 

By Jeff  Tittel in The Jersey Vindicator

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection budget has been signed, and it reveals exactly where the state’s priorities lie. A budget is a roadmap. It shows what the government values and what it is willing to invest in. The DEP budget used to represent a commitment to protecting our air, water, parks, wildlife, and public health. Today, it is being transformed into something very different: the Department of Expedited Permits.

The Sherrill administration talks about “efficiency,” “cutting red tape,” and “modernizing government.” Don’t be fooled. When politicians say they’re cutting red tape, what they usually mean is they’re cutting environmental protections. They’re replacing science with stopwatches, public participation with corporate consultations, and environmental review with rubber stamps.

This isn’t simply about making permits move faster. It is about changing the mission of the DEP itself. Instead of asking whether projects should be approved or how their impacts can be minimized, the focus is now on how quickly permits can be issued. They have even renamed permit applicants as “customers.”

The result is a dangerous combination of budget cuts, weakened enforcement, fast-track permitting, climate rollbacks, and billions of dollars in subsidies for dirty and risky energy projects. It is an agenda that puts corporate developers, fossil fuel companies, and politically connected industries ahead of the people of New Jersey.

This isn’t environmental policy. It’s the continuation of the war on environmental protection.

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From The Robotincs Newsletter

Gritt, a startup founded by two Carnegie Mellon roboticists, exited stealth this week with $32 million in funding to deploy robots that build solar infrastructure. The Series A was led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from Union Square Ventures and Active Impact Investment.

The pitch is straightforward: the global solar build-out is hitting a labor ceiling. Gritt’s AI-powered systems attach to off-the-shelf skidders and robotic arms, then handle the heavy lifting of unloading panels, carrying them to frames, and positioning them with sub-millimeter accuracy. An eight-person crew that typically installs 800 panels per day can hit 3,000 to 4,000 panels daily with Gritt’s system.

The company already has contracts to help install 2.8 gigawatts of solar over the next 18 months, with three of the top 10 U.S. power construction companies as customers. CEO Puneet Puri says the goal is to “help civilization build infrastructure faster.” Next up: drilling posts, tying rebar, and eventually moving beyond solar into broader construction automation. Editor’s Note: This is just one of dozens of stories enjoyed today by subscribers to our newsletter, EnviroPolitics. Try it for free for 30 days

 

In Rutland, Indiana, a sign along a rural road opposes a solar power installation. (Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

By Kari Lydersen, Canary Media, July 23, 2026

When the largest solar farm in Indiana came online in early 2025, nearby residents in rural Jasper County were not exactly excited.

“It will mess up their fields,” said long-time resident Gena Carlson, referring to solar panels on farmers’ land. Carlson’s concerns, which were echoed by other locals, highlight the growing on-the-ground opposition to Indiana’s remarkable boom in solar construction.

Last year, Indiana ranked third among states for the most new solar projects brought online. Only Texas and California — the nation’s clean energy leaders — built more. It’s a new position for Indiana, which ranked 15th for solar additions in 2023 and 10th in 2024. The Solar Energy Industries Association expects Indiana to maintain its momentum, projecting it will have the fourth-highest solar growth over the next five years.

“That’s a pretty notable fact since we don’t have the incentives and policy support for solar that a lot of other solar leaders do,” said Ben Inskeep, program director at the Citizens Action Coalition, the state’s primary consumer watchdog group.

The growth is due in part to the state’s data center boom, with solar developers taking advantage of Indiana’s level land, robust transmission networks, and relatively sunny weather to build clean power that meets tech companies’ sustainability goals. The utility NIPSCO, owner of the Jasper County solar farm, adopted ambitious clean energy goals in 2018 and brought more than a gigawatt of solar online in Indiana last year.

But as solar capacity has increased, so too has local opposition — and clean energy advocates say developers and officials must find common ground with communities in order to keep the solar buildout going.

Like Carlson and her neighbors in Jasper County, residents across the state are protesting that solar will eat up farmland, affect property values, or change the bucolic character of counties in America’s heartland. These claims are not unique to the Hoosier State — similar pushback is spreading around the country as solar grows, even if the tech uses only a sliver of farmland nationwide.

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