Nearly 5 years after the passage of the landmark, first of it’s kind Environmental Justice Law, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection has issued it’s first decision on the Safety-Kleen facility permit application. While we are glad to see these decisions come through, NJEJA and our partners have serious concerns with the components of the decision.
To make our concerns known and to raise our points of conversation with the DEP, NJEJA and our partners penned a letter addressing our thoughts as well as areas of the decision which we did not feel fully enforced the EJ law. This letter has been sent to staff at the NJ DEP. Read the full letter below.
For questions, please reach out to us at info@njeja.org.
Our full letter to NJ DEP regarding the Safety-Kleen decision:
As part of ongoing engagement regarding the New Jersey Board of Public Utility’s Triennium process, the BPU solicited comments on updates to the program. NJEJA offered our support and guidance based on our work, experience, and relationships with community partners to articulate support for community-centered building decarbonization work and horizontal integration of all stakeholder groups including residents, tenants, and community-based organizations.
For questions, please reach out to us at info@njeja.org
In a time when climate progress is under attack at the federal level, state leadership is more important now than ever. Many states across the nation are taking bold steps to accelerate their clean transportation goals. For example, programs in California include procurement policies like the Innovative Clean Transit Regulation and the Clean Miles Standard, while Colorado, New York and New Mexico maintain a diversity of electric vehicle (EV) incentive and charging infrastructure programs. This also includes California Governor Newsom’s EO N-27-25, which directs state agencies to submit new policy recommendations to make progress on clean transportation without new federal approvals, as well as to provide state incentives for OEM manufacturers that continue to comply with the original Clean Cars standards.
The transportation sector is New Jersey’s largest source of climate-harming emissions and localized air pollution. Continuing to push for innovative ZEV policies is therefore paramount to achieving New Jersey’s climate targets and cleaning up our air quality. Embracing these policies will reduce harmful emissions and improve public health while fostering economic growth through green jobs in manufacturing, infrastructure development, and technological innovation.
We are proud to join @WEACT4EJ and over 90 organizations calling on Congress to increase funding levels for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) including environmental justice programs, in fiscal year 2026. After catastrophic and unlawful environmental justice funding cuts from the current administration, this call from organizations across the country emphasizes the need to protect all of our access to clean air, water, and land.
In May, we joined our partners at the Equitable and Justice National Climate Platform and 65 organizations across the country in a letter urging the House of Representatives and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to protect funding for environmental justice programs like the Clean Ports program and the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program. These funds are crucial for EJ communities, as they help reduce local air pollution and protect public health.
Programs that improve public health such as Air Pollution Monitoring for schools, the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants program, Clean Ports Program and the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program are not only vital to protecting vulnerable communities from a legacy of greater hazard exposure, they are also needed investments to create opportunity. The grant funds aren’t just a dollar figure. These are real losses—for residents breathing polluted air, for communities threatened by climate risks. It is extremely important that members of Congress oppose any provisions in the budget reconciliation bill that cancel public health protections. We must protect environmental justice programs that are crucial to the health and well being of the most vulnerable communities.
Yesterday, the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners voted YES to building a FOURTH fossil-fuel power plant in Newark’s Ironbound, a devastating blow to a community that has spent years demanding clean air. This decision is a slap in the face to the residents, technical experts, and advocates who have laid out viable, cleaner solutions. Instead, PVSC chose to ignore science, health, and community voices in favor of its profits. Newark doesn’t need another polluting facility; the city needs REAL investment in its future, not more toxic infrastructure.
NJEJA stands with the Ironbound and those across the state who have spoken out against this dangerous decision.
To PVSC: We will not stop fighting. Everyone deserves clean air, regardless of their zip code.
Read our full statement below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 13, 2025
Press Contact: Melissa Miles, Executive Director | melissa@njeja.org
Newark, New Jersey – The New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, a statewide organization dedicated to reducing and eliminating environmental injustices in communities of color and low-income communities, is deeply disappointed in PVSC’s decision to approve project plans to construct a fourth power plant in the City of Newark. We call upon the Commissioners to reconsider their decision and halt construction plans.
Communities have been clear in their opposition to this plan, and PVSC’s decision to support the plan directly flies in the face of community agency and autonomy. For years, a multitude of community members in the Ironbound, advocates, and residents from across the state have highlighted the ways that a fourth power plant would bring about dangerous increases in local air pollution and contribute to the effects of climate change. The approval of this project, which would burn natural gas and potentially utilize hydrogen fuel, directly contradicts the state’s clean energy goals. Any plan for additional plants that do not rely solely on truly clean energy risks increasing local air pollution levels, including both greenhouse gases and co-pollutant emissions.
PVSC’s decision represents a threat to both environmental justice and public health, as well as a direct disregard and disrespect to community members opposing this plan. We stand in solidarity with residents, community members, advocates, and community-based organizations who have vehemently opposed this project. We will not give up. We demand clean air for all persons across this state, regardless of their zip code. “
“I am disappointed that the Passaic Valley Sewerage commission has approve the construction of an additional power plant instead of taking this opportunity to collaborate with the community to create a solution that everybody could support.” Nicky Sheats. Ph.D., Esq., Director, Center for the Urban Environment, Watson Institute for Urban Policy and Research at Kean University Senior Policy Fellow and Lecturer, Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment, School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
“It is very regrettable that the PVSC board of commissioners has chosen to vote against climate science, clean technology, and community voices. Our goal is to avert the health impacts of another toxic gas plant in an already environmentally overburdened community. Instead of taking the high road, PVSC continues to take the path of least economic and political resistance at the expense of the Ironbound and neighboring communities. We expect more from our utilities and our dollars.” Melissa Miles Executive Director, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance
“This yes vote is not only incredibly disappointing, but an example in which community members have been passed over and not valued as the equal stakeholders in this process that they are. Many technical experts, advocates, experienced community members, and residents have not only vocally opposed this project, but offered viable alternatives and solutions to the issues PVSC has raised. Newark does not want – or need – a fourth fossil-fuel burning power plant.” Brooke Helmick Director of Policy, New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance
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To learn more and read our open letter to PVSC, click the button below.
As a vote on the proposed PVSC power plant appears imminent, NJEJA is shining a spotlight on our letter to PVSC which went unanswered. On September 19, NJEJA submitted a letter to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission’s Commissioners expressing our deep opposition to the proposal of a fourth power plant in the Ironbound Community of Newark, New Jersey.
For years, community members both in the East Ward and across the state have been clear: no more power plants in Newark! Not only has the community continually come to monthly PVSC meetings to voice strong opposition to this plan, but numerous technical, legal, and planning experts have highlighted that there are better alternatives for the energy needs of PVSC than a fourth power plant.
We stand in solidarity with the residents of the Ironbound in opposing this plant as it will contribute to local air pollution, exacerbate risks to negative health outcomes, and continue a reliance on fossil fuels when a rapid transition to renewables is deeply needed.
Commissioners, leave behind a legacy of environmental justice and Vote No on this proposal.
Environmental justice organizations across the country came together to support federal protections of LIHEAP (Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program) which brings not only economic relief to families across the country, but yields public health benefit as well.
This letter – addressed to the House and Senate Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies – calls on lawmakers to fully fund LIHEAP at $5.1 billion, and to include supplemental emergency funding of $2 billion. Additionally, the letter requests assurances that the LIHEAP office will be fully staffed moving forward after news broken that HHS illegally fired LIHEAP staff.
NJ organizations from across the state and advocacy spaces joined together to call on Governor Murphy’s office to continue their support for the implementation of the Advanced Clean Trucks rules and regulations. The rules would support efforts to curb local air pollution levels by incrementally increasing the number of electric vehicles on the road, thereby decreasing levels of diesel exhaust and related air pollution. This work has co-benefits of supporting climate mitigation policies as well as public health goals.
To learn more about the Advanced Clean Truck rules, read our blog post Debunking ACT Myths. For questions, please reach out to us at info@njeja.org.
In continuation of reviewing and redoing the 2019 New Jersey Energy Master Plan, the NJ Board of Public Utilities (BPU) solicited comments on their analysis and work. NJEJA offered our support and guidance based on our work, experience, and relationships with community partners to articulate support for increased usage of renewable energy, opposition to carbon capture/hydrogen technologies, and continued prioritization of low-income and environmental justice communities.
For questions, please reach out to us at info@njeja.org
