well some of the state's leading climate Advocates were in New Brunswick court yesterday as oral arguments got underway for a lawsuit slamming the Murphy administration's environmental record saying the governor has ignored his own rules and regulations set out in the global warming response act Melissa Rose Cooper reports as part of our ongoing series Peril and promise focusing on the human stories of climate change stillbursts miscarriages that that's already you know so horrifying and upsetting to me but then when you see children with developmental problems that's a lifetime problem and these are just a few of the possible Public Health impacts of climate change Paula regolvin a retired teacher and grandmother of six says worries her regovin and other environmental activists are accusing Governor Murphy of failing to implement necessary regulations to meet the state's goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50 by 2030 and 80 by 2050. just two weeks ago we were in New Brunswick for governor Murphy's big clean energy announcement where he announced yet another new Target for the state that will be achieved you know more than a decade in the future but today the governor is failing to use his authority to stop these seven new fossil fuel projects he's already approved six in his first five years in office and there are seven major ones pending so these climate Advocates are taking their fight to the next level suing the Murphy Administration for ignoring critical amendments to the state's global warning response act back in 2021 we filed a petition with the DP um asking them to set up um regulations that provide for targets for reducing greenhouse gases prior to 2050. in particular we asked them to implement what is already the state policy of reducing greenhouse gases by 50 percent by 23rd the EP doesn't have any regulations that would accomplish that goal and when they denied our petition and didn't really give a a a a a a reasonable reason for doing so we then appealed uh to the Appellate Division John Richmond represents the group of environmentalists demanding the state create enforceable benchmarks for reducing greenhouse gas emissions arguing their position before an appellate court in New Brunswick yesterday DP admitted that it was not on track to meet the 50 gold what's called a 50 by 30 Rule and in fact that they have no intention of taking the steps necessary to meet them activists say all they want is for governor Murphy to live up to his promises to fight climate change and every day that doesn't happen the negative effects only grow worse we know that building more fossil fuel power plants like the one proposed in Woodbridge will not only pollute our air and make it harder to breathe but they will also exacerbate and accelerate climate change leading to more frequent and extreme storms fires property damage health problems and even death so this is too important not to pay attention to and we need Governor Murphy to wake up and reject these dirty projects in legal filings the Murphy Administration has argued that its policies have the state on track to meet the Law's targets and that makes writing new benchmarks a waste of time and while the governor says he hasn't had a chance to review what happened during yesterday's hearing yet he had this to say in response to concerns the state is not doing its part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions I would just put our track record environmentally up against any American state over the past five years period And I think the facts more than prove that out the Department of Environmental Protection is declining to Common on the case at this time a decision from the appeals court is now pending for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper lead funding for parallel and promise is provided by Dr p Roy vagalos and Diana T vagalos major support is provided by the Marc Haas foundation and Sue and Edgar wachenheim III and the Cheryl and Philip milstein family [Music]