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Feb. 3 to 9
Enviro Fix in ’26
The race for governor in New Jersey is underway. It is hard to go online these days and not get hit with campaign ads. YouTube is showing debates, and mailers are being delivered by the Postal Service. The push, of course, is because the primary election is now almost exactly four months away.
In an effort to ensure that environmental and energy issues are front and center in the race, a bipartisan group of environmental advocates recently launched Enviro Fix in ’26, an agenda specifically designed to set environmental- and energy-related priorities for the gubernatorial contest. With Phil Murphy not able to run again due to term limits, these groups are losing a key advocate for clean energy and environmental protection, even though many of them spent a lot of time criticizing him for not moving fast enough.
Ed Potosnak of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters appreciates that Murphy worked to “put New Jersey in the forefront of environmental policy.” Members of Enviro Fix in ’26 see the state facing an existential crisis in areas of climate change, lead contamination and PFAS pollution. The agenda they have put together focuses on a series of key areas:
- They seek to aggressively continue the building of a clean energy future for the state, meeting the stated goal of 100% clean energy by 2035. This requires investments in the electricity grid to ensure it can handle distributed sources of energy in the volumes needed.
- The agenda calls for investments in resilient communities. The rising levels of damage due to climate change, highlighted by the California fires, means the next governor must lead the state through policies that protect the state from the dire impacts of climate change.
- The next governor must ensure that residents can breathe clean air by dealing with the substantial air quality problems in the state, while also improving the state’s drinking water, which is suffering from lead pollution and plastics contamination.
- Public transport must be improved and electrified. Part of this would make the Corporate Transit Fee permanent. The fee is funded through the Corporate Business Tax.
- The agenda also calls for preserving 500,000 acres of open space and ensuring the parks are available within one mile of where people live.
Currently, six Democrats and 10 Republicans have declared in the race. As they debate issues like immigration and affordability of housing, breaking through with a commitment to a renewed and even more urgent push on environmental policy may be a challenge.
Climate Change Attitudes
Part of the difficulty environmental advocates face in getting their agenda center stage placement is what the polls tells us about changing attitudes about climate change.
Monmouth University polling tells us that while most Americans still believe that climate change is real, less than half (46%) now believe it to be a very serious problem. A great problem in a democratic system is maintaining a focus on long-term issues that require immediate disruption and sacrifice. Those advocating radical change due to climate change-based threats are fighting, and in some cases losing, that battle.
A Monmouth poll in 2024 showed that only 15% of voters felt that worries about climate change would influence how they voted now. The immediacy of the vote and the distance of the threats from climate change did not match up. Support for government action to reduce activities now that are said to impact climate change is declining and being replaced by a focus on what are perceived to be more immediate issues.
Polling results from Fairleigh Dickenson University shows a partisan disagreement over whether children should be required to learn about climate change in schools. While the poll suggested strong support for required education, there were significant numbers of individuals who felt the topic too upsetting for children.
Data from the Yale program on climate change from 2023 show that 64% of Americans are concerned about global warming and climate change. However, only 46% feel it will hurt them personally, while 45% believe it will not. A full 64% of respondents to the Yale polling said they almost never discuss global warming.
Undocumented
On Thursday, Jan. 30, Cape May County Sheriff Bob Nolan was sworn in as president of the New Jersey Sheriff’s Association. The presence at the ceremony of well-wishers from U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement set off alarms in Wildwood that led parents to remove children from school and workers to fail to show in businesses across town. The fear was of an ICE raid.
News reports have dealt with the fact that no raid was contemplated and the day’s disruption was not founded in a real threat of arrests and deportations. But why was Wildwood the location of community fear and reaction?
While the Hispanic population of the county is only 8%, according to the Census Bureau, the same census data shows Wildwood with one-third of its population self-declared as Hispanic. It also shows that a full 20% of the city’s population is foreign-born, and 95% of that foreign-born population is from Mexico.
The census data do not identify undocumented versus documented individuals among the foreign-born. One restaurant owner said that among his staff individuals in the country legally still succumbed to the fear of being caught up in ICE raids.
Available statistics show New Jersey as an attractive state for immigrants. The U.S. Immigrant Council puts the foreign-born population of the Garden State at 2.2 million, or about 23% of the total state population. The council also estimates that about 460,000 of those New Jersey immigrants are undocumented. That would make 4.9% of the state’s population undocumented immigrants, and an even larger 6.7% of the state’s workforce. The numbers also suggest that this population pays about $3.4 billion a year in local, state and federal taxes.
Week in Review
*The Mahalo Resort hotel project, approved by the Wildwood Crest Planning Board last year, is in the hands of Superior Court Judge Michael Blee, who has been asked to overturn the board’s decision.
*When the Army Corps of Engineers released its updated 2024 back bay protection plan in December, the study area was well known to the agency as home to 10 active coastal storm risk management projects.
*Members of the public continued to press the Cape May County commissioners to be more transparent at the commission meeting Jan. 28.
*Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation Feb. 3 that more than doubles the number of petition signatures needed to get on the ballot in the Garden State. The bill also made the new requirements effective this year.
*A Dennis Township man died about a week after his vehicle struck a truck parked along Route 9 in Seaville, State Police reported.
*The boyfriend of a woman whose body was found stuffed in a refrigerator in Belleplain State Forest has been charged with her murder, officials said.
*The Lower Township Council honored Fire Official Donna Blackley, who has ended a quarter-century of service with the township Fire Bureau, at its Monday, Feb. 6, meeting.
*The state will not be awarding any contracts as a result of its fourth-round solicitation of bids for offshore wind projects.
*A Millville woman is charged with killing her sister in Upper Township in 2023 and attempting to make it look like a drug overdose, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
*The Middle Township Committee has set limits on the size of trash receptacles residents can put out through an ordinance change adopted on Monday, Feb. 3.
*The Stone Harbor Borough Council, on a split vote, has decided to seek bids on providing services for the administration, promotion and execution of the borough’s special events and public information needs.
*With a promise she would ensure the schools were well-positioned for the 2025-2026 academic year, Dennis Township Superintendent and Primary School Principal Susan Spiers announced her retirement.
*Two days after being recognized with the Legion of Honor Humanitarian of the Year award given to him by the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation for his lifetime of service to the military community, a humble Johnnie Walker Sr. said, “I’m still walking on air.”
*Electricity consumers in a large region that includes South Jersey will be avoiding an estimated $21 billion price hike over two years thanks to a recent settlement to a complaint filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
*Lower Township Mayor Frank Sippel presented his annual State of the Township address at the Monday, Feb. 3, council meeting, highlighting town finances and projects completed last year.
Spout Off of the Week
North Wildwood – Reporters asked Eagles’ Jordan Mailata what he thought about President Donald Trump his rooting for the KC Chiefs and attending the Super Bowl. His response was classic Philly in “He’s not on the field.”
