By Jeff Tittel in the Jersey Vindicator
Only in New Jersey does the Senate Environment Committee hold a hearing on Earth Day about pulling down an environmental rule. We have really gone from protecting the environment to siding with polluters and developers.
In the past, on Earth Day, we held hearings on how we could further protect our environment. The hearings focused on new protections for clean water, the Highlands, climate change, and renewable energy. We have now gone full Orwell. Even though we are facing a flooding crisis, we are not only doing nothing — the Legislature wants to pull down the only rule in years that tries to strengthen protections. New Jersey is one of the most flood-prone states in the nation. We have experienced flood after flood.
Flooding is not bad luck or an unavoidable act of God. It is the direct result of decades of reckless land-use decisions that put development before safety, politics before science, and profits before people. Even when the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection proposes changes, even small steps, special interests rush in.
New Jersey Senate Concurrent Resolution 106, sponsored by Senate President Nick Scutari, seeks to overturn the REAL Flood Rule. A Senate Concurrent Resolution serves as a legislative veto of an agency rule. To take effect, it must be approved by both the Senate and the Assembly on the grounds that the rule does not meet legislative intent. The Department of Environmental Protection would then have 30 days to withdraw the rule. If it does not, the Legislature votes again, and the rule is repealed. The governor cannot veto a Senate Concurrent Resolution.
The only time in New Jersey that a Senate Concurrent Resolution passed both houses and overturned a rule was in 2017, when the Legislature blocked Christie’s Highlands Septic Density rule. That rule would have weakened Highlands protections and allowed more development, more septic systems, and more pollution in drinking water supplies. At that time, the Senate used an SCR to stop a rule viewed as harmful and protect the environment. Now, critics say the same process is being used to block environmental protections and increase the risk of flooding and pollution.
Jeff Titttel is the former director of the Sierra Club in New Jersey
