The challenges continue
We need your continued support in protecting New Jersey's environment this year and for years after. We have had many obstacles thrown our way, but we will continue to hammer on. We are going to need your help for various issues around the state including: banning fracking and fracking waste disposal; getting NJ back into RGGI; stopping the various planned pipelines through our state; promoting a clean energy future; taking measures to deal with climate change and sea level rise; and much more.
Some of our recent achievements include:
- Stopping Laws that Threaten Clean Water and Healthy Communities
We believe the people of New Jersey should have clean water and the peace of mind that the places where our children play are free of toxic pollution. Through our legislature efforts, we were successful in passing a bill to Ban Fracking in New Jersey, which unfortunately then-Governor Christie later vetoed. However, we are continuing our efforts to stop fracking from happening here in New Jersey and in the Delaware River Basin. Other legislation that we have lobbied heavily against was the Water Quality Management Plan and the Permit Extension Act. We continue to work on both of these pieces of legislation that will greatly affect the water quality in New Jersey.
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- Promoting Clean Energy and Working to Fight Climate Change
 Renewable energy is critical to our environmental and economic health. We were able to build a campaign around then-Governor Christie’s Energy Master Plan putting together a rally and getting volunteers out to the hearings helping to educate the public about energy issues here in New Jersey. We have also been working with various environmental groups around the state in a campaign to get New Jersey back into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiate (RGGI). RGGI is an agreement signed by the ten northeast states to cut carbon emissions from electrical generation power plants. Governor Murphy has announced that he is in favor of rejoining RGGI, but the Legislature has yet to pass a bill for formalize our participation. We've been successful in pushing for legislation that promotes clean energy here in New Jersey including the PACE Bill.
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- Preserving Natural Habitats
 Years of work by the NJ Chapter paid off with the preservation of the 392-acre Petty's Island, located in the heart of the Delaware River Estuary. The island, which is home to wildlife like bald eagles and herons, was official preserved on Earth Day 2009 to serve as an ecological, cultural, and historical preserve.
After a 10 year battle, the Windy Acres site was purchased as Green Acres. The site, adjacent to the Round Valley Reservoir in Clinton, was being considered for a residential development but is now preserved open space. We helped stop a 400-plus condominium development proposed to be built on 180 acres of open space next to Jockey Hollow National Historic Park in Morris Township.
We won a local victory in Clinton, after successful grassroots campaign that stopped the construction of an office building next to Spruce Run Reservoir. The same members in were active in the fight to prevent a 172-acre truck depot from being built in Warren County.
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- Protecting Barnegat Bay
The Sierra Club has worked in extensive lobbying on various bills that would help protect Barnegat Bay. We were successful in getting three bills passed including a bill that would regulate fertilizer, Total Daily Maximum Loads, and storm water bill. We continue to work on various other pieces of legislation that will help to protect and improve the health of Barnegat Bay.
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- Fighting for Comprehensive Pollution Regulations
 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has come out with various proposed rules to help protect our environment and our health. These rules include a rule limiting the amount of greenhouse gas emission from new power plants. Other EPA proposed rules include regulations to clean up our air and reduce pollution from coal-fired power plants, including the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, reductions in mercury, SoX and NoX emissions from power plants, and regulation of coal ash. The Sierra Club is working extensively educating the public about these rules and making sure that get adopted to ensure we have a clean and healthy environment for years to come.
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- Stopping Proposals that Threaten Environmentally Sensitive Areas
We're always working to protect our state's natural resources and environmentally-sensitive areas like the Highlands and the Pinelands. We have been working long and hard to protect the Highlands from various projects including the Susquehanna Roseland Transmission Line and the Tennessee Gas Pipeline. We are also protecting the Pinelands by getting the Pinelands area removed from the Permit Extension Act. In addition we continue to fight various development projects to protect these environmentally sensitive areas and others around the state.
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