NJBIA has filed an amicus brief in the Appellate Division of Superior Court, supporting appeals to invalidate the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) environmental justice rulemaking. The association argues that the rulemaking has caused confusion and created more issues than it resolves.
The brief, submitted on June 17 by attorneys Angelo Genova and Kenneth Sheehan from the Genova Burns law firm, supports businesses and labor groups appealing the DEP's implementation of a law that permits denial for facilities located in what DEP identifies as overburdened communities.
“The Rule, crafted by DEP, will likely cause chaos and is virtually certain to create uncertainty and a multitude of issues for the business community,” states the brief.
DEP adopted the environmental justice (EJ) rule in April without incorporating substantive changes recommended by the business community. According to NJBIA, this results in regulatory overreach that does not benefit the communities it aims to protect. Instead, it could lead to fewer economic opportunities for residents, loss of business and development opportunities, increased abandoned properties, and minimal environmental and health benefits.
NJBIA is not seeking to prevent the law's implementation but asks the court to “carefully review the deep flaws in this proposal and, having done so, reject the rule not for all time but as presently written.”
The EJ law explicitly applies only to permits for facilities located “in whole or in part” within an overburdened community (OBC). An OBC is defined as a census block group with a specified percentage of certain populations.
“Despite this clear and unambiguous legislative language, DEP expanded the statutory definition of ‘overburdened community’ to include all unpopulated census block groups adjacent to an OBC; that is to say, census block groups that have absolutely nobody living in them. This is both conceptionally unnecessary and legislatively unfounded,” notes the brief.
To read the entire amicus brief, go here.
