New Jersey lawmakers plan to rollback key flood protections on Earth Day

The rollback favors developers and would weaken protections as New Jersey faces rising flood threats.

Only in New Jersey does the Senate Environment Committee hold a hearing on Earth Day about pulling down an environmental rule. We have really gone from protecting the environment to siding with polluters and developers.

In the past, on Earth Day, we had hearings on what we could do to further protect our environment. The hearings focused on new protections for clean water, the Highlands, climate change, and renewable energy. We have now gone full Orwell. Even though we are facing a flooding crisis, we are not only doing nothing — the Legislature wants to pull down the only rule in years that tries to strengthen protections. New Jersey is one of the most flood-prone states in the nation. We have experienced flood after flood.

Flooding is not bad luck or an unavoidable act of God. It is the direct result of decades of reckless land-use decisions that put development before safety, politics before science, and profits before people. Even when the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection proposes changes, even small steps, special interests rush in.

New Jersey Senate Concurrent Resolution 106, sponsored by Senate President Nick Scutari, seeks to overturn the REAL Flood Rule. A Senate Concurrent Resolution serves as a legislative veto of an agency rule. To take effect, it must be approved by both the Senate and the Assembly on the grounds that the rule does not meet legislative intent. The Department of Environmental Protection would then have 30 days to withdraw the rule. If it does not, the Legislature votes again and the rule is repealed. The governor cannot veto a Senate Concurrent Resolution.

The only time in New Jersey that a Senate Concurrent Resolution passed both houses and overturned a rule was in 2017, when the Legislature blocked Christie’s Highlands Septic Density rule. That rule would have weakened Highlands protections and allowed more development, more septic systems, and more pollution in drinking water supplies. At that time, the Senate used an SCR to stop a rule viewed as harmful and protect the environment. Now, critics say the same process is being used to block environmental protections and increase the risk of flooding and pollution.

What should we expect from a Legislature that gutted the Open Public Records Act, eliminated pay-to-play restrictions, tried to abolish the state comptroller, backed Scutari bills cutting renewable energy while promoting nuclear power, and attempted to enact Heritage Foundation and Trump-inspired environmental rollbacks in S4343, which Gov. Murphy vetoed?

If we stay on this path, the next flood won’t be a surprise. The surprise will be how much more frequent and devastating the flooding will be.

The numbers are staggering and should serve as a wake-up call. New Jersey ranks among the most vulnerable states in the nation when it comes to flooding. We are third in the country for people at risk, second for building in flood-prone areas, and second in FEMA disaster claims.

That is not a coincidence. It is about putting special interests over public safety.

“A flood of problems, and a drought of action.”

REAL rules: Some progress is being undermined by politics

The REAL (Resilient Environments and Landscapes) rules represent a long-overdue acknowledgment that climate change is real and flooding is getting worse.

They include important steps forward:

• Elevating construction above outdated flood maps
• Incorporating future climate conditions
• Expanding disclosure requirements
• Emphasizing resilience and stormwater management

These are meaningful improvements.

But they are not enough. We need to do more. Still, they are the first step forward in decades, and the first step at undoing some of Christie’s rollbacks.

The rules still have loopholes, exemptions, and political compromises:

• “Compelling public need” could allow development where it shouldn’t
• Flood hazard trading weakens protections and ignores local impacts
• High-risk areas still allow too much development
• There is no clear prohibition on building in flood zones

There is one section of the rule that needs to be removed. It was an addition to the rule allowing affordable housing in flood zones. That is not equity; it is discrimination dressed up as policy.

Safe, dry homes for those who can afford them. Flood-prone, mold-infested housing for those who cannot.

We have already seen the consequences. During Ida, people drowned in basement apartments in places like Elizabeth.

We can propose a new rule to strengthen flood protection and address these concerns. But if the Legislature pulls this rule down, we will never get a stronger rule, and other important environmental protections could be in jeopardy.

Scutari’s SCR 106: A direct attack on flood protections

Senate Concurrent Resolution 106 is not a reform. It is a rollback.

Backed by developers, the Builders Association, and towns chasing ratables, it would allow the Legislature to overturn the REAL rules entirely.

Supporters claim it is about affordability and costs. That argument collapses under scrutiny:

• There is nothing affordable about flooding
• Rebuilding costs far exceed resilience costs
• Weakening rules increases long-term damage

The rule meets the legislative intent of the NJ Clean Water Act, Flood Hazard Control Act, the Wetlands Act, and the Coastal Area Facility Review Act. When those laws were passed, they were landmark environmental protections. The legislators who passed those laws would be horrified by what this Legislature is doing today.

This is a shameful abuse of the legislative process.

There is also a real risk that New Jersey could jeopardize its standing with FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program, threatening access to flood insurance statewide or causing rates to skyrocket.

The most dangerous part of Senate Concurrent Resolution 106 is its attack on climate change.

The resolution claims that the Department of Environmental Protection has no authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions or climate impacts, limiting its authority to mere monitoring.

This is dangerous. It aligns New Jersey with Trump-era thinking, stripping the Department of Environmental Protection of the ability to regulate emissions, address climate impacts, or mitigate damage.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 106 is about protecting polluter and developer profits, not people.

The Legislature is not solving the flooding crisis; it is making it worse.

Governor Sherrill’s concerning signals on flood policy

Governor Sherrill’s approach sends troubling and contradictory signals.

Will the governor and the Department of Environmental Protection commissioner oppose the Senate Concurrent Resolution? Will the acting Department of Environmental Protection commissioner, Ed Potosnak, testify against it, lobby and fight against it? Will the acting commissioner resign if the Sherrill administration supports the Senate Concurrent Resolution? Or will he give the governor green cover? This is the first big test for the governor and acting commissioner.

This Senate Concurrent Resolution is an attack on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the executive branch. Will they defend their institutions or cave to special interests? Will they support science or succumb to political science?

On one hand, the administration has allowed the REAL rules to move forward so far. On the other, it has:

• Issued Executive Order 7, freezing regulations under the guise of cutting “red tape”
• Created a “Permit Czar” position to accelerate development approvals
• Focused heavily on “affordability” without addressing the cost of building in flood zones
• Fast-tracked DEP permits and moved toward privatizing land-use and flood protection permits
• Remained largely silent as SCR 106 threatens to dismantle the REAL rules

This is not leadership; it is avoidance.

Fast-tracking permits and privatizing DEP flood and land-use approvals, letting consultants working for developers issue permits, undermines protections.

Acknowledging climate risk while fast-tracking development is like hitting the gas at the end of Thelma and Louise. In reality, it means more development, more flooding, and more people living in unsafe areas.

“Nature brings the rain, but government decisions make flooding worse.”

Christie-era rollbacks: The damage we still live with

To understand how we got here, we have to look at the Christie administration’s environmental rollbacks.

Those policies:

• Weakened stream buffer protections
• Opened flood-prone areas to more development
• Loosened stormwater management rules
• Undermined the Flood Hazard Area Control Act

These changes didn’t just tweak regulations; they dismantled core protections.

They have increased flooding and put more people in harm’s way.

They prioritized short-term development over long-term safety.

Because Gov. Murphy did not fully repeal those rollbacks, we are still paying the price today, in flooded homes, polluted waterways, and repeated disaster recovery.

The REAL rules are the first attempt to undo some of that damage and add new protections.

The bottom line

New Jersey’s flooding crisis is not inevitable; it is the result of deliberate choices.

The REAL rules are a step forward, but they are weakened by compromise. SCR 106 would take us backward, locking in more risk, more damage, and more loss.

Governor Sherrill has an opportunity to lead, but so far, the signals are mixed, and the actions fall short.

We are treading water. A flood is coming.

We can side with overdevelopment and special interests, or move the state forward on real flood protections. We can continue to repeat the same mistakes, building in the wrong places, ignoring science, and paying the price again and again.

Or the Legislature can stop Senate Concurrent Resolution 106.

Or we can finally make the hard decisions needed to protect our communities.

If they pull down the REAL rule, we are all going to need snorkels.