For Immediate Release
Contact: Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100
Governor Murphy has announced that Catherine R. McCabe, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, will be retiring as of January 15, 2021. Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, released the following statement:
“When Catherine McCabe was hired, there was great anticipation for major changes to the Department. We hoped that she would bring about a shift in direction and help to rebuild morale. This was critical after 8 years of Christie. There were some positive changes, but we didn’t get the action we needed. Overall, her tenure as Commissioner has been disappointing.
“There were some positives, like going back to RGGI and targeting polluters with lawsuits and Natural Resource Damages, especially in Environmental Justice communities. But overall we didn’t get the action we needed. The biggest problem we’ve seen is that the DEP hasn’t had the sense of the climate emergency we’re facing. DEP still doesn’t regulate CO2 or greenhouse gases and we are still building in flood-prone areas. The biggest part of the disappointment is that all of Christie’s rollbacks are still in place, especially around land use and wetlands. She failed to end the bear hunt, continued to allow logging on public lands, still took money away from urban parks, and hasn’t protected Liberty State Park. Staffing levels are lower now than when she came in, and morale in DEP is still low because people were hoping for real changes and they didn’t see them.
“Most commissioners leave before election year if they don’t want to stay for a second term. This gives Murphy the chance to bring in someone who will be stronger and will help deal with these issues. We hope that whoever Murphy picks will take on this sense of climate urgency and move DEP forward. They need to start regulating CO2, get rid of Christie’s rollbacks, increase enforcement and staffing, and rebuild morale within the Department. We had high hopes when McCabe came in, but she was not strong enough of a leader to really bring the DEP back after 8 years of Christie’s cuts and rollbacks. Now Murphy can bring in a dynamic leader who will be able to modify the Department to deal with the 21st century and the climate urgency.”