Murphy Drops One Pinelands Nominee After Pushback from Environmentalists

TRENTON – After pushback from environmental groups over his picks for the Pinelands commission, Gov. Phil Murphy dropped one of his three nominees before they went to the senate for confirmation. 
According to a report in the Press of Atlantic City, Murphy’s picks for the commission, which is a close to one-million-acre environmental preserve that encompasses parts of seven counties, drew fierce opposition from environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Pinelands Preservation Alliance. 
Murphy met with environmental groups concerned over his selections Dec. 6, and a day later, on Dec. 7, he dropped one of the nominees, according to the Press. Elvin Montero, who served as deputy executive of the New Jersey Chemistry Council, is out. The chemistry council had reportedly been at odds with environmental groups.  
Murphy’s two remaining picks – Laura Matos, the politically involved managing director of Kivvit’s, a media and public relations company’s New Jersey office, and Davon McCurry, the recently named deputy head of marketing and public affairs in New Jersey for Orsted, the company working to build offshore wind farms – are still expected to go in front of the senate for confirmation, according to the report. 
Murphy has struggled to get nominees to the 15-member board approved. Seven of the 15 seats are the governor’s to fill, with senate approval. Two of those seats are vacant and the five active members are all serving expired terms. 
In addition to those empty seats, Camden County still has an empty seat to fill as does the federal government, which could be done at the direction of the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, according to the Press report.
The Pinelands National Reserve is an important resource not only because it is a huge area of preserved ecosystems and for its role in protecting the purity of the aquifers that supply much of South Jersey’s water, the report said.