New Day in New Jersey: Environment New Jersey Statement on Gov. Murphy’s Inaugural Address & Inauguration

Environment New Jersey

Trenton – Today, at 12 p.m. on the dot, Governor Phil Murphy was officially sworn into office as the 56th Governor of New Jersey during a packed audience at the Trenton War Memorial, his hand atop the Kennedy family Bible which President John F. Kennedy used during this own 1961 Inauguration.

Governor Murphy proceeded to deliver an Inaugural Address on the vision he will bring to his new Administration and where he hopes to take New Jersey. Environment New Jersey’s Director Doug O’Malley issued the following statement in response to the Inaugural Address:

“This afternoon, Governor Murphy ushered in a new era of environmental protection in New Jersey. Gone is eight years of inaction and environmental rollbacks during the term of Gov. Chris Christie, which saw New Jersey slip from an environmental leader to a laggard. This is truly a new day for New Jersey’s environment.

During his Inaugural Address, Governor Murphy pledged to aggressively invest in clean, renewable energy, fight climate change and have New Jersey meet the goals of the Paris Climate Accords. Gov. Murphy also noted the attacks on environmental protections from the Trump Administration and vowed to fight against the proposal for off-shore drilling which endangers the Jersey Shore. The Governor noted the impacts of lead poisoning on our children and pledged to tackle that issue.

Governor proudly campaigned on a platform of environmental protection, which included pledges to move New Jersey to a 100% clean energy future by 2050, make New Jersey the nation’s leader in off-shore wind, expand solar energy, energy efficiency and battery storage in the state, rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and expand electric vehicles, and end the raids on the NJ Clean Energy Fundn. He also pledged to ensure that we are protecting our drinking water sources from overdevelopment, restoring science-based decision-making to the Highlands Council and Pinelands Commission and pledging to stop the construction of the PennEast pipeline.

The Christie era has pulled New Jersey back on environmental protection and being a leader on climate change, but there’s tremendous energy to reassert environmental leadership in the Murphy Administration. We desperately need this new leadership, and we welcome the chance to make New Jersey a national environmental leader once again.”

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