A federal judge just put a stop to New York’s plan to shake down oil and gas companies for billions to pay for climate adaptation. Chief Judge Brenda K. Sannes ruled that the Climate Change Superfund Act — officially the Climate Change Adaptation Cost Recovery Program — cannot be enforced because it intrudes on areas Congress and federal law control. That decision blocks a state attempt to extract roughly $75 billion from energy companies over 25 years and is likely to set the tone for similar fights around the country.
Why the court was right: law, not politics
At its core this was a clean federalism case, not a debate about climate science. Judge Sannes found the Clean Air Act and federal policy occupy the field for greenhouse-gas regulation. Let’s be blunt: you can’t have 50 states writing 50 different tax-and-liability schemes for global emissions. New York’s program tried to impose strict liability based on past production numbers — no proof of lawbreaking required — and assign a massive bill to private companies. That would have created chaos for energy markets and raised costs for consumers nationwide.
Foreign affairs and common sense
The ruling also pointed out the obvious practical problem: parts of New York’s law reach foreign producers. The foreign affairs doctrine exists so states don’t muddle U.S. diplomacy or create conflicts with international partners. If New York thinks it can unilaterally haul in money from foreign refineries and producers around the world, it misunderstands how our constitutional system works. The Department of Justice — acting under President Donald J. Trump’s administration — sided with plaintiffs, rightly warning that the law risks expropriating billions from companies at home and abroad.
What this means going forward
Expect an appeal. New York’s officials, including Governor Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James, have said they’re reviewing the decision. Courts in the Second Circuit will get another look; but this opinion will be cited by any company or state facing the same kind of “climate superfund” scheme. The upshot for lawmakers is simple: if you want to spend on resilience and infrastructure, pass a budget or push Congress to act. Running novel, sweeping liability schemes through state law is legally weak and economically risky.
This ruling is a reminder that good intentions don’t excuse constitutional limits. If New York wants to protect communities from storms and flooding, it can do that the old-fashioned way — through state budgeting, infrastructure projects, and working with the federal government. Trying to turn every energy company into a piggy bank for retroactive climate costs was a long shot. The judge stopped a badly designed law before it did real harm to energy supplies and prices. That’s a win for rule of law, and yes, for everyday consumers who don’t need another hidden tax passed off as justice.
As Congress prepares to return from its August recess, several important federal funding decisions could have significant implications for historic preservation programs nationwide.
Before the recess, both the House and Senate passed different Continuing Resolutions (CRs) that would extend federal government funding into December. The two measures must now be reconciled before the current funding authorization expires on September 30.
Assemblywoman Shanique Speight’s bill providing increased protections for patients seeking reproductive health care services was signed into law by Governor Mikie Sherrill today. Bill A2218 also protects the medical professionals who provide that care.
The legislation shows New Jersey’s commitment to health care access and comes at a time when other states are taking legal action against both individuals and providers seeking and administering reproductive health care services.
Congressman Jeff Van Drew responded to Governor Mikie Sherrill’s letter attacking members of the Republican Study Committee who joined Congressman Van Drew’s effort to get answers about the failure that placed thousands of individuals who identified themselves as noncitizens on New Jersey’s voter rolls.
“When we first raised this issue, we did so because we were genuinely concerned about what happened in New Jersey and wanted to understand exactly how it happened,” said Congressman Van Drew. “For years, those of us who raised concerns about the integrity of our voter rolls were dismissed as conspiracy theorists. Then New Jersey admitted that thousands of individuals who said they were not citizens were registered to vote, and many registered through the error went on to cast ballots.
Stay Engaged Through Town Halls, Public Meetings, Our App, & Social Media
Check out the various ways to engage with your local government, get important updates, and be involved! Join monthly meetings with the Camden County Board of Commissioners and Congressman Donald Norcross, follow our social media, browse the county website for programs and services, and download the free Camden County App for instant access to all events, alerts, concerts, news, and more. To download the app, Click Here. The monthly Caucus Meeting was Tuesday, August18th, and the Commissioners Meeting, Today, August20th. Meetings are at 520 Market St, 6th Floor, Camden. To watch meetings online, Click Here.
The next Town Hall Meeting will be Thursday, September 10th, located at the Haddon Township High School Cafeteria, 406 Memorial Avenue, Westmont. If you have questions or need assistance, please submit them, and we will forward them to the appropriate department. To submit, Click Here.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 20, 2026)–During a Senate hearing held on August 20, 2026, Senator John Kennedy asks Nancy Pelosi how she was able to gain $250 million during her 37 years as a Congresswoman.
Kennedy said, “I counted money for the state of Louisiana. Every bond issue, every disbursement, every dollar that moved through that office had to add up at the end of the day. And when a number did not add up, it was my job to find out why. He looked at her. Ma’am, this number does not add up.”
” Let us be generous,” Kennedy said.
“Using the average salary for a congressmember, $174,000 a year times 37 years. That is about $6.4 million before taxes. Ma’am, you are worth more than $200 million,” he said.
“If a person saved every dollar of salary, ma’am, never ate, never paid rent, never put gas in the car, never turned on a light, that person would need to work for over 1,400 years to reach your net worth.”
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Time and time again, we see corruption in our federal, state, and local governments, but nobody ever goes to jail. According to Spotlight PA, out of 100 Senators, 77 members are millionaires. Out of the 435 members of the House of Represenatives 60 percent are millionaires.
This financial disparity raises serious concerns about how connected elected officials are to average citizens, and it sheds light on why there is so little legislative support for term limits. We need greater transparency and reform to address these systemic issues in our government.
Speaker Craig J. Coughlin issued the following statement today on the announcement that Seth Hahn is stepping down as the Executive Director of the Assembly Majority Office in September.
“Seth has been an invaluable member of our team and an important part of the success of our caucus over the past six years,” said Speaker Coughlin. “Seth’s leadership was instrumental in expanding paid family leave, passing landmark affordable housing legislation, increasing ballot access, and making sure New Jersey has been on the leading edge pushing back against attacks on reproductive care, immigrants’ rights, voting rights and common sense gun safety laws. He was the Assembly’s top negotiator for five bipartisan budgets spanning two administrations. I wish him the best of luck as he enters the next phase of his career, and I know he will be successful.”
GLOUCESTER CITY, NJ (August 13, 2026)— The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has issued an official Warning Letter to Gloucester City, putting local officials on a ticking clock over significant environmental violations at a controversial waterfront property. The state’s action comes as the city finds itself tangled in parallel legal and financial crises over the future of its Southport redevelopment zone.
According to state records, a compliance evaluation by the NJDEP’s Bureau of Coastal and Land Use Compliance and Enforcement revealed that the city completely bypassed critical environmental obligations at 850 Water Street (Block 120, Lot 2). To rectify the violation, the state is ordering the city to purchase $2.6 million in wetland mitigation credits.
The Timeline of the Violation
State environmental rules dictate that local infrastructure development cannot come at the permanent cost of South Jersey’s natural ecosystems. Under New Jersey Administrative Code (N.J.A.C. 7:7A-11.3(a)), developers are bound to a strict timeline when modifying protected environments: any required wetland mitigation must be built or restored prior to or alongside the main construction.
State regulations require that environmental restoration track at the exact same or greater percentage of completion as the construction project itself. The state asserts that Gloucester City continued its build-out on Water Street while neglecting to advance the necessary environmental counter-balances, violating Condition #3 of Permit #0414-11-0002.5 LUP190001.
ATLANTIC RICHFIELD/ARCO was located at 850 Water Street 50 years ago. Across from that company was NJ Zinc, also known as Gloucester Titanium, and Gulf and Western.
The state had previously granted the city an extended grace period to rectify the matter, which expired on April 17, 2025. Because that deadline passed without a resolution, the state escalated the enforcement action under file number WRN250001.
Historical Context: From Oil Terminal to Brownfield
The 9-acre parcel at 850 Water Street holds deep historical weight for the Gloucester City waterfront. Situated in the city’s industrial Southport area, this parcel was home decades ago to the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) / BP oil terminal site.
Following the cessation of oil operations, the territory sat vacant for over 30 years as a highly contaminated industrial brownfield, locked in stagnant, unproductive conditions due to heavy environmental liabilities. The entire 121-acre Southport district was heavily plagued by modern industrial hazards, including metals, PCBs, PAHs, and radiological contamination.
In 2008, the NJDEP officially designated Southport as a Brownfield Development Area (BDA), allowing the city to clean up, cap, and safely reconstruct the defunct industrial shoreline. A landmark three-party settlement agreement between Gloucester City, BP/ARCO, and the NJDEP eventually cleared the way for remediation and groundwater cleanup.
Broken Contracts and a $10.5 Million Lawsuit
The Cannabis Connection: High Stakes on Water Street
Public records reveal the high-stakes battle over 850 Water Street was about much more than organic waste compost. In 2019, Gloucester City leadership passed Resolution R123-2019 and companion measures to deliberately alter the Southport zoning rules.
Their goal was to clear the path for a massive, vertically licensed medical marijuana cultivate-and-retail facility directly on Block 120, Lot 2. D’Antonio’s firm sought to sublease the territory to cannabis operators. When the city tore up the contracts, it didn’t just kill a recycling facility—it extinguished a multi-million dollar cannabis enterprise, supercharging the current $10.5 million civil suit again
With the industrial scars of the ARCO era slowly being erased, the city aggressively sought out redevelopment partners. The original vision for 850 Water Street was centered on a groundbreaking green energy initiative: a world-class, fully enclosed organics recycling and composting facility designed to transform regional food waste into renewable energy and high-quality compost.
The city initially partnered with Gloucester City Organic Recycling, LLC (GCOR), an entity spearheaded by environmental entrepreneur Rocco D’Antonio. D’Antonio’s waste-to-energy firm, operating under the project banner Oren, spent substantial time remediating the site, pulling out contaminated debris tanks and raising the entire 10-acre site four feet out of the floodplain to clear the path for groundbreaking.
However, the relationship between the municipality and the redeveloper completely soured. Citing contractual breaches, failures to act, and conflicts of interest, the Gloucester City Mayor and Common Council terminated their agreements with GCOR and formally cut ties with all entities owned by D’Antonio.
The messy breakup triggered severe legal retaliation. Believing the city wrongfully broke its contract, D’Antonio filed a massive $10.5 million lawsuit against Gloucester City. That major litigation is currently working its way through the New Jersey court system, hanging over municipal administrators as a catastrophic secondary financial threat.
Sourcing the Credits: A Public Expense
The $2.6 million credit demand introduces an immediate hurdle for local leaders. When a project impacts a delicate local wetland ecosystem, the law requires that an equivalent portion of nature be built, enhanced, or protected elsewhere. Because Gloucester City failed to perform this remediation work directly on or near the Water Street property, the state allows the purchase of third-party “credits” as a fallback.
These credits are managed by approved regional Wetland Mitigation Banks—dedicated parcels of land where private environmental firms or state agencies have already successfully restored expansive wetland tracts. Sourcing these credits is difficult, as there are currently no active, privately run freshwater wetland mitigation banks physically located within the borders of Camden County.
State mitigation tracking relies heavily on Watershed Management Areas (WMAs) rather than county lines. To satisfy the mandate, Gloucester City must secure credits from a facility whose approved service area covers WMA 18 (Lower Delaware), such as the regional Oldmans Creek Mitigation Bank operating nearby in Salem County.
If regional private credits are entirely sold out, the city will have no choice but to pay into the state’s In-Lieu Fee Program, sending millions in public funds directly to the state’s Freshwater Wetlands Mitigation Council to fund state-managed restoration programs far away from Gloucester City. Because the city is a public entity, a $2.6 million mandate—compounded by the defense costs of a $10.5 million developer lawsuit—represents a severe blow that could deeply strain the local municipal budget.
NJDEP Considering Daily Fines Against Gcity
The clock is officially running for Gloucester City Mayor Dayl Baile and his city council. The state’s warning letter mandated that the city must respond with a definitive, actionable compliance plan to satisfy the outstanding mitigation requirements within 30 calendar days of the notice.
Inquiries regarding the enforcement file are currently being routed through NJDEP Environmental Specialist Maurice Nelson. City leaders have not yet publicly detailed whether they intend to absorb the multi-million dollar credit purchase, appeal the state’s calculations, or how the ongoing litigation with Oren and Rocco D’Antonio will impact the final layout of the Southport waterfront.
According to our source, The $2.6 million is not a fine. It is the cost of wetland credits the City would need to purchase from wetland banks (private companies) to satisfy their permit obligations.
Allegedly, the City has been claiming they didn’t have the funds which was not true. They have been sitting on $2.75 million to do this work since they passed Bond Ordinance 2012-003 on February 16, 2012, specifically to do the work.
Both the NJDEP and the Army Corp of Engineers know the City is not being truthful as they have all the City’s documents Including former mayor Spencer’s testimony that they were aware they needed to do the work and confirmed they always had the money.
David Cummins was sworn in as the eighth Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) following his confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
In May 2026, President Trump nominated Cummins to head TSA and lead a workforce of approximately 60,000 employees and the security operations at more than 430 airports across the United States. Under the direction of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, Cummins also has federal responsibility for the security of the nation’s surface transportation including rail, mass transit systems, highways, pipelines and maritime.
Legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Andrea Katz that addresses the growing youth mental health crisis and strengthens protections for minors online was signed into law by Governor Mikie Sherrill today. The three-bill package strengthens online privacy protections for minors, establishes a statewide Social Media Research Center, and advances research into strategies to reduce harmful and addictive online behaviors among young users.
