Incoming New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, at a news conference today, introduced his pick to become the state’s next commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, Catherine McCabe.

An attorney, McCabe has served in numerous executive environmental positions, including:

• Assistant New York State Attorney General
• Deputy chief of the environmental enforcement section of the federal Department of Justice
• Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance at EPA
• One of three judges on the EPA’s Court of Appeals
• Deputy and Acting Administrator of EPA’s Region 2
• Acting Administrator of the federal EPA

Murphy said that the state had lost ground in environmental protection during Gov. Chris Christie’s eight-year term, specifically noting Christie’s failure to capitalize on the opportunity presented by offshore wind development, his withdrawal from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and his settlement of pollution claims with ExxonMobil that Murphy said amounted to ‘pennies on the dollar.’

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