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.