The Murphy administration on Monday withdrew a nomination for a seat on the Pinelands Commission after strong protests from environmental groups who said the nominee, a chemical industry representative, would weaken protections for the sprawling South Jersey region.
The decision, a significant win for the environmental lobby, came after leaders of the nonprofits Pinelands Preservation Alliance and the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters met with two members of the governor’s appointments team in Trenton.
The environmental groups cancelled a news conference that had been planned earlier Monday to call for Murphy to withdraw his nominations of Elvin Montero of the New Jersey Chemistry Council and two other candidates — Davon McCurry of the offshore wind developer Ørsted, and Laura Matos, an executive with Kivvit, a national communications firm.
Montero would have replaced Ed Lloyd, a veteran conservationist who has served on the commission since 2002. Lloyd will stay under the new agreement.
McCurry would replace D’Arcy Rohan Green, an environmental advocate who has sat on the commission since 2011, and Matos would replace Rick Prickett, a retired high school science teacher who serves as the current chairman.
“After collaborative talks this afternoon with Pinelands advocates, we are moving forward with two nominees to the Pinelands Commission,” Murphy’s office said in a statement late Monday. “The governor is committed to diversifying the commission and ensuring that its actions promote environmental justice and accountability to those most impacted by its decisions.”
The Murphy administration said it would pursue the nominations of McCurry and Matos but not that of Montero.
The commission, an independent state agency, is charged with protecting the natural resources of the Pinelands while promoting economic growth if it is compatible with the environmental goals. Murphy’s nominations need approval by the Senate.
Preventing a conservation setback
Ed Potosnak, executive director of the League of Conservation Voters, who attended the Trenton meeting, said he was hoping for further changes to the slate, which he and others said would have been a major setback for conservation in the 1-million-acre Pinelands preserve.
“We did receive confirmation they are going to withdraw Elvin Montero of the Chemistry Council and keep Ed Lloyd,” Potosnak said. He said the withdrawal of Montero was “really not enough” but declined to specify what else he was seeking.
“What we would like to see is it having continuing or better environmental representation,” he said.
The league welcomed the withdrawal. “We are pleased that Governor Murphy exercised true leadership today by listening to our concerns and agreeing to remove a representative of the petrochemical industry from consideration as a nominee to the Pinelands Commission. This will also allow longstanding Columbia University environmental attorney Ed Lloyd to remain on the commission,” it said.
Carleton Montgomery, executive director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, who was also at the meeting, said administration officials also pledged to press for Senate confirmation of two earlier nominees to the commission — Jennifer Coffey of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions and Theresa Lettman, a former staffer at the alliance.
Maintaining environmental interests
Those nominations, which are supported by the environmental lobby, have been held up in the Senate. If they are now confirmed along with the modified slate of new nominees, the commission will at least retain its environmental representation, Montgomery said.
“What we’re looking for is if the governor can get confirmed the people that are pending and the other two individuals that he nominated, that would be, I believe, a reasonable combination of people for the Pinelands Commission,” Montgomery said.
He declined to say he was “comfortable” with the two remaining candidates from the new slate of nominations but said he could “live with that” if those candidates are combined with the earlier nominees.
“They said the governor wants you to know that he hears the concerns that you raised,” Montgomery said.
He and Potosnak told the officials that Montero was an unsuitable candidate because he works for the Chemistry Council, which “routinely” opposes new regulations designed to protect human health and environmental quality from chemical contamination, Montgomery said.
“He’s probably a great human being, but he works for a business that is really not aligned with the Pinelands Commission,” Montgomery said. “There were a lot of conflicts of interest.”
