NJ DEP Was Just As Bad As Trump EPA On Failure To Regulate Toxic Emissions From NJ Chemical Plants
It is the NJ DEP that issues the air pollution control permits, not the US EPA
NJ Spotlight Again Targets Trump And Ignores The Murphy DEP
NJ Cancer Risk Standard And NJ Environmental Justice Law Ignored
I've got some news for the good folks over at NJ Spotlight: the Trump EPA is a very easy target, but the NJ DEP, led by former corporate lawyer Shawn LaTourette, was just as bad as the Trump EPA in failing to protect NJ communities and workers from toxic air emissions from chemical plants.
Today NJ Spotlight finally wrote the story about the Trump rollbacks of Biden EPA hazardous air pollutant emissions regulatory controls at two NJ facilities.
NJ Spotlight wrote the story out of the DC Office and focused exclusively on Trump and EPA, and therefore missed a huge part of the story and again gave the NJ DEP a pass, see:
Trump’s action to weaken regulation of the medical sterilization industry was one step in a flurry of moves he and Republican allies in Congress have made to ease federal limits on extractive companies and industries since he reentered the Oval Office in January.
In three other memos he signed last week, Trump weakened regulation on iron ore, chemical manufacturing and power plants that run on coal.
Those Trump rollbacks are old news: we wrote the story about them months ago, see this April 19 post:
By creating the impression that the Trump "memos" are news (they are Presidential exemptions under Section 112 the federal Clean Air Act, not "memos", and thus another example of Trump's dictatorial abuse of authority), this lets the NJ DEP and State lawmakers off the hook for doing absolutely nothing for several MONTHS to block the deregulation that Trump announced in an Executive Order way back on April 8 and expanded upon and made more specific by EPA on April 14.
Today's Spotlight story does not even mention the NJ DEP, who has primary responsibility under the Clean Air Act for regulating hazardous air pollutant emissions from those facilities. It is the NJ DEP that issues the air pollution control permits, not the US EPA.
As I wrote, NJ DEP has been involved heavily at both facilities for years.
And they have done nothing to prevent Trump and EPA rollbacks by using State air pollution control laws and enforcement of DEP air permit regulations.
Worse, DEP actually blocked efforts to prevent those rollbacks by denying a petition for rule making that was targeted explicitly on the Biden EPA regulations Trump effectively rolled back (read the dishonest DEP denial document).
NJ Spotlight also fails to report: 1) the toxicology of ethylene oxide;2) the actual high cancer risks calculated by EPA; 3) the EPA cancer risk maps and human exposure of people in Linden and Hardyston, or 4) the fact that the cancer risks exceeded NJ's cancer risk standards by 100 - 2,000 TIMES.
By focusing exclusively on EPA and Trump, NJ Spotlight also ignores: 1) NJ's environmental justice law, 2) the issue of cumulative impacts from multiple exposures to hazardous chemicals, and 3) huge gaps in the DEP air permit program regarding lack of regulation of fugitive emissions and small unregulated sources of pollution (which can make up 75% of total emissions!).
So, to summarize the significant stories that NJ Spotlight missed by focusing exclusively on the Trump bogeyman:
Negligent and lax DEP role in regulating air toxics
Violation of NJ's 1 in a million cancer risk standards
NJ's environmental justice law and DEP regulations
Cumulative impacts and fugitive emissions are ignored by regulators
Governor Murphy, DEP Commissioner LaTourette and the chemical industry are pleased that all these critical issues remain buried and the public is being misled.
NJ Spotlight is a State news outlet. They should focus on NJ State government and let The NY Times and Washington Post focus on Trump and EPA - tell your readers what the NJ DEP is doing! (or in this case, failing to do!)
Heckof a job NJ Spotlight (again).