Bloomberg News has reported that New Jersey must begin amending or repealing the state’s climate-change regulations within 60 days. A state appellate court has ruled that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration violated the state law in the way it withdrew from a regional program to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. New Jersey’s withdrawal meant producers no longer had to comply with the program and that the DEP did not have to make emissions allowances available for purchase or give emissions offsets to companies.
The director of Environmental Protection of New Jersey, Doug O’Malley, reported in a statement that “neither Governor Christie nor the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection can simply repeal state laws by fiat.” A lawyer for two environmental groups told the state appeals court that Chris Christie’s administration had broken the law when it said that power plant operators no longer needed to comply with state rules governing carbon dioxide emissions.
The judges found “little doubt.” A three-judge panel in Trenton, New Jersey ruled that “The department should have taken action to repeal the regulations or amend them to clarify that they do not create a stand-alone trading program,” according to Bloomberg News. The three judge panel in New Jersey must begin amending or repealing the state’s climate-change regulations within 60 days.
According to NJ.com, Deputy Attorney General Matthew Kelly told the judges, “The department’s position, your honor, is that it did not need to repeal them because the regulations, by their own affect, are conditioned on participation in the program.”
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