KEY GROUPS URGE GOVERNOR TO EXPAND AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION TO MEDICAID
News Article •
New Jersey LCV urges Governor Murphy to expand automatic voter registration (AVR). Families in environmental justice communities must have a say in what happens in their neighborhoods, and one way to do this is at the ballot box. Let’s make it as easy as possible for these residents to register and vote.
Nice job Trenton! Now, we need actual laws to protect our climate, ourselves, environmental group says
News Article • • by Ed Potosnak at NJ.com
New Jersey completed most environmentally productive session in the state's history, but with the threat of climate change there is still more that has to be done.
Shadowy fossil fuel front group should come clean about who they really represent
News Article • • by Ed Potosnak at NJ.com
With the Energy Master Plan, New Jersey will create thousands of high-quality jobs that can’t be outsourced, air quality and public health will improve, and we’ll be more resilient in the face of disasters fueled by climate change.
Dark money bill threatens future climate and environment advocacy, group says
News Article • • by Ed Potosnak at The Star-Ledger/NJ.com
...Over the past two years, the environmental movement’s strong advocacy in Trenton has led to important victories that will expand clean energy and wean our state off fossil fuels. Yet our future advocacy work is now threatened by a recently passed measure that gives cover to the shadowy corporate interests at the root of our climate crisis.
The law, passed by the legislature in June, was pitched as a way to address the problem of money in politics.
New legislation will help N.J. meet its aggressive clean energy goals
News Article • • by Ed Potosnak at NJ.com
...on May 23rd, 2019, something dramatic happened. The legislature doubled down on its commitment to a clean energy future, to healthy communities, to a decarbonized world. The Assembly passed – in strong bipartisan fashion – an update to the existing, economy-wide, Global Warming Response Act (GWRA) and sent it to the governor’s desk. This legislation proves timely as the federal government has ceded all leadership under the current administration, leaving it solely to states to demonstrate leadership – none more so than New Jersey.
Murphy OK’d ‘Rain Tax’ — Could it Fight Lake Hopatcong's Toxic Algae?
News Article • • by David Matthau at North Jersey 101.5
Several recent heavy rainstorms have made a bad situation worse at Lake Hopatcong, where a harmful algae bloom caused by stormwater runoff has prompted the state Department of Environmental Protection to ban swimming and most other water-related activity.
Henry Gajda, a public policy associate with the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said what’s happening is not really surprising.
"The more rain that comes down in heavier doses, the more stormwater runoff there’s going to be," Gajda said.
Lake Hopatcong's toxic algae bloom renews fight over stormwater law derided as 'rain tax'
News Article • • by Scott Fallon at North Jersey Record
The severity of toxic algae blooms like the one affecting popular Lake Hopatcong could be minimized if more New Jersey towns impose fees on property owners to pay for upgrades that reduce runoff into lakes and rivers, environmentalists say.
"We have a lake closure due directly to stormwater and the failures over the years to deal with it," said Ed Potosnak, director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, who grew up water-skiing and fishing on Lake Hopatcong. "We now have a tool to really deal with it. We just need the political will to use it."
After flooding, Moorestown talks stormwater management
News Article • • by George Woolston at Burlington County Times
MOORESTOWN — One week after torrential rain flooded much of Burlington County, the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters hosted a meet and greet Tuesday with the mayor and deputy mayor to discuss one of the township’s more pervasive problems — stormwater management.
Around 30 residents attended the informal meeting at the Moorestown Community House, where officials answered questions and updated those in attendance on what the township has planned this year to address the problem.
New Law Simplifies How State Allocates Funds To Preserve Open Space
News Article • • by Tom Johnson at NJ Spotlight
Gov. Phil Murphy has signed a bipartisan bill that determines how the state will allocate constitutionally dedicated funds to preserve open space, farmland and historic structures.
The new law could result in less messy fights over how to dispense a big pot of corporate business tax revenues to fund a wide array of open space projects each year. This year, $155 million will be divvied up among state and local governments and nonprofit groups that annually vie for the money.
Legislature Needs to Live Up to Compromise and Fix Dark Money Bill Before Law Hurts Progressive Groups
News Article • • by Ed Potosnak, Marcia Marley and Saily Avelenda at Insider NJ
The New Jersey Legislature needs to act now to protect our state’s progressive advocates.
For the past several months, the Legislature and Governor Murphy have publicly debated measures aimed at tightening public disclosure requirements for organizations that fight for clean air and drinking water, civil liberties, racial justice and reproductive rights.
While shining a light on Trenton is a laudable goal, the bill that was signed into law by Governor Murphy has serious flaws that both violate the Constitution and threaten progressive advocates.