By Doug O’Malley and Jason F. Cilento
As President Joseph Biden and Congress are in the end game of critical negotiations on a major infrastructure package designed to improve our nation’s transportation system and address the dire impacts of the climate crisis, the climate is knocking on the door saying that time is up. Already this month, New Jersey has seen historic heat waves, tremendous flooding from the impacts of Tropical Storm Elsa and the dangerous haze of air pollution from the ravaging forest fires out West.
We firmly believe we need a comprehensive infrastructure bill that addresses the climate challenge to give us a fighting chance to meet President Bidens’ goal of cutting carbon pollution in half by 2030 and we need Congress to deliver. One of the best places to start is to ensure the infrastructure bill puts fighting climate change – and reducing carbon emissions – at top of its list.
New Jersey Transit’s Raritan Valley Line, the third most-used rail line in the state, provides a vital connection between cities and towns in Union, Somerset, Hunterdon, and Middlesex Counties. However, the line has suffered from a lack of investment, impairing reliability of its train service, and it still lacks a one-seat ride directly into Manhattan. This lack of investment is not unique in the Garden State – a recent Infrastructure Report Card from the White House gave New Jersey a D+.
Neighboring states such as New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware were given a C- and Maryland given a C. It is flabbergasting that New Jersey, which is filled with bedroom communities that make the greatest use of our transit infrastructure, falls so short compared to other states in our region.
Investing in our state’s future and fighting climate change shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Failing infrastructure threatens our environment and our quality of life in both predominantly Republican and Democratic communities across New Jersey. We need leaders who have a plan to build a better future. When partisanship gets in the way, as it did with the Gateway Tunnel Project, everyone loses out. Infrastructure projects like these are crucial to the economic vitality of our state and nation.
Like the state of our decaying infrastructure, the threat of climate change looms large across New Jersey. From 2010 to 2020, our state experienced 23 extreme weather events, costing up to $50 billion in damages, according to the White House. Climate change is only increasing the frequency and severity of these catastrophes – we are still smarting from the damage from Hurricane Isaias last August, which inflicted close to $5 billion in damages across the East Coast.
We do not need to look at the data to see the impact of climate change -- we’re all living it. Inland communities such as Dunellen are overwhelmed with the costs of aging sewer lines and maintaining antiquated stormwater management systems, which result in increased flooding of our streets from more frequent storms. Infrastructure bill improvements would help lower flood insurance premiums for homes within a flood zone.
To repair our infrastructure and fight this burgeoning climate crisis, President Biden proposed the American Jobs Plan, a bold down payment on our nation’s future that invests in roads, bridges and tunnels, while slashing climate pollution in the process. This transformational plan would not only put infrastructure-related transit initiatives such as the Gateway Project on the table, but it would also boost New Jersey’s adoption of transformational technologies such as electric vehicles and clean energy from offshore wind and solar power.
As the mayor of a municipality in Middlesex County, and the director of a statewide environmental group, we know acting on infrastructure and climate is essential. We are not alone in this belief. A recent Environment New Jersey poll of three battleground U.S. congressional districts in the state — the 3rd, 7th and 11th — found that the investments are popular.
More than 80% of voters in all three districts supported the plan’s proposals to rebuild roads and bridges, modernize public transportation to cut pollution and increase accessibility. About 75% of voters in the 7th and 11th districts supported funding the Gateway Project, too, while about 75% of voters in the 3rd District were in favor of investments to protect the Jersey Shore from the impacts of climate change.
This plan is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in New Jersey. We are confident U.S. Representatives Andy Kim, Tom Malinowski and Mikie Sherrill — who represent the polled districts — and all members of the New Jersey delegation will rise to the occasion and work with President Biden and across party lines to get the job done. It is imperative that our entire Congressional delegation fight for the American Jobs Plan and its provisions, which would move the needle on the climate crisis and put millions of Americans to work.
Doug O’Malley is the state director for Environment New Jersey.
Jason F. Cilento is the mayor of Dunellen. He is the only Republican in the state to be a part of Climate Mayors, a national association bringing together mayors to reduce climate pollution.
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