Last month, NJBIA took the somewhat unusual step of standing with a group of manufacturers before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify in support of clearing Ed Potosnak to be the commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection.
We felt this was important for several reasons.
For starters, Potosnak showed himself to be a capable leader in his acting role as DEP Commissioner. And as the full Senate saw while being confirmed last week, he has a solid handle on the wide breadth of areas that DEP covers every day based on his previous environmental leadership roles.
In one of his first major decisions alongside Gov. Mikie Sherrill, Potosnak paused the extreme and overreaching REAL/PACT Land Use rules, championed by their predecessors, for a year. And he also promised more stake-holdering and discussion as the rules are revisited.
In doing so, Potosnak showed what we feel was lacking from DEP leadership in recent years — a pragmatic sense of balance.
Let’s be very clear: We understand, particularly from some of our own personal and professional experiences at DEP, that the top priority of agency is to protect our water, air and natural resources. A lack of environmental protection doesn’t do anyone any good.
But too often in the recent past, we saw the most extreme policies and burdensome overregulation come from DEP that were largely devoid of economic balance considerations. Reasonable regulation helps everyone. Overregulation helps no one.
We must be mindful that it is our employers who provide jobs for our citizens, who galvanize our economy and help make New Jersey a great place to live and raise a family.
We also must realize that New Jersey is an extremely expensive state to live. These rules would have exacerbated that.
In our view, the criticisms from the environmental community levied at the Sherrill administration over this REAL/PACT pause have been unfair.
Here are just some of the facts that have been overlooked throughout their protests:
- The REAL/PACT rules called for another 4 feet of elevation on new and updated construction ABOVE the federal flood standards;
- NJBIA had recommended another 2 feet of elevation above the federal standards as a starting point. It would make New Jersey the most flood protection in the nation. But the DEP, under the Murphy administration, would not bend;
- The rules require flood insurance NOW for residents who have never had flooding, and likely never will have flooding;
- They add massive costs to construction and discourage any development in ALL tidal areas, including urban areas. Not just the Jersey Shore;
- The science used to determine these standards was dated and never intended to be used as a regulatory standard. Beyond that, the report showed low confidence that we would have that much flooding in 75 years;
- We have 75 years to adjust standards if needed;
- The rules do little to improve what we need most to address flooding: resiliency;
- And a confusing, 1,200-page rule that DEP likely would never be able to effectively enforce or implement, standards that would be so impactful for millions of New Jersey residents, was done outside the legislative process.
Plain and simple, that’s a failure of governance.
We understand we are not going to agree on every issue with the DEP under the Sherrill administration. We may disagree more than we agree, in fact.
But we do feel the concerns of the business community under this new leadership will be considered, and we will have a seat at the table.
Both Governor Sherrill’s “Saving Time & Money Agenda” to make government more responsive, and Commissioner Potosnak’s prioritizing balance and permit reform, make NJBIA comfortable supporting this movement in the right direction. With good discourse that includes all sides — and not just one side — we are confident of a better result from the DEP than we have seen in recent years.
So, we thank Ed Potosnak for his diligence as it relates to these controversial rules. We wish him luck and we stand at the ready to work together on many issues going forward.
Ray Cantor is Deputy Chief Government Affairs Officer with the New Jersey Business & Industry Association. He worked at the NJDEP for 12 years in numerous roles.
