Mullica River Ducks by Thomas Valentino
Why a Duck? Why a Lame Duck? Your Guide to NJ’s Year-End Legislative Madness
From clean energy to climate accountability—we break down what’s happening in Trenton, and offer ways you can keep New Jersey from waddling in the wrong direction.
In a scene in the 1929 Marx Brothers’ movie The Cocoanuts, while looking at a map, Groucho says, “Here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland,” and Chico asks, “Why a duck?” The current lame-duck session of the New Jersey legislature can seem just as confusing.
We call the period between Election Day (which was November 4, 2025) and the start of the new legislative session (January 13, 2026), the “lame duck” period. During this time, the political dynamics shift: legislators are no longer facing an imminent election, and some are preparing to leave office altogether. As the state looks ahead to a new governor in January, the current legislature continues moving bills forward—sometimes tying up loose ends, and sometimes advancing proposals that would be politically risky during campaign season. Add in the distractions of the holiday season, which often dampen public attention, and it’s easy for big-ticket and even controversial decisions to slip through.
The New Jersey legislature has packed the lame-duck calendar with dozens of committee hearings and five voting sessions between the two chambers. The Pinelands Alliance, along with our environmental allies, are supporting several bills that would fight climate change and make our communities more resilient, and we are opposing a bill that would thwart regulations by the executive branch, particularly the Department of Environmental Protection. Here are the most active bills and appointments we are pushing and why their fate matters to the Pinelands:
Pinelands Commission Appointment: Let’s Finally Fill Ed Lloyd’s Seat!
It has been over two years since Ed Lloyd—a legendary environmental advocate—unfortunately passed, leaving a seat vacant on the Pinelands Commission that has yet to be filled. Governor Murphy has finally nominated Bob Jackson to fill Ed’s shoes—so now it is up to the legislature to make it happen. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which advances or stalls nominations like this one, has one more meeting on the books for this legislative session: December 15. We need you to call your state senators to tell them to approve Bob’s appointment to the Pinelands Commission!
100% Clean Energy Act
Utility bills in New Jersey increased about 20% in 2025, with prices projected to go even higher in the coming years. The fastest way to decrease energy costs is to increase the amount of clean power going into our electricity grid. Clean energy like solar power is the cheapest and fastest to connect, with the additional bonus of reducing the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions: the production of electricity from fossil fuels creates about 20% of the greenhouse gases emitted in our state.
The Clean Energy Act (Senate Bill No. 237/Assembly Bill No. 1480) aims for 100% of electricity sold in New Jersey to come from clean sources. We are working closely with the Sierra Club and the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters on this legislation. You can see their joint op-ed about it here. And you can add your support to our joint advocacy efforts here.
This will clean up our air, create green jobs in New Jersey, and reduce our contribution to climate change—which is already impacting the people and wildlife of the Pinelands.
Climate Superfund Act
Between 1980 and 2024, New Jersey experienced 75 weather and climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each. These events included 32 severe storms, 18 winter storms, 13 hurricanes, 7 droughts, 4 floods, and 1 freeze event. Taxpayers paid billions of dollars for repairs through FEMA, state relief, and their personal insurance. The Climate Superfund Act (Senate Bill No. 3545/Assembly Bill No. 4696) would make the largest fossil fuel corporations pay their share for the damages caused by climate change in New Jersey.
All funds would go to projects that help communities recover from, and become more resilient to, increasingly destructive climate impacts. This would include many people in the Pinelands, including farmers impacted by the increasing frequency of droughts, property owners impacted by increasing floods, and communities impacted by extreme heat—to name a few.
Our colleagues at the Climate Revolution Action Network explain the necessity to “make polluters pay” and how the Climate Superfund would work here.
A New Jersey Version of the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE)
The Efficiency and Regulatory Review bill, (Senate Bill No. 4373) , would make it harder for the governor and executive branch agencies – particularly the Department of Environmental Protection – to do their job. Environmental advocates warn that the legislation would jeopardize important and hard-fought regulations like the REAL rules, which aim to make communities better prepared for floods but were opposed by the construction industry, which labeled the regulations as too costly.
The bill would establish the Commission on Efficiency and Regulatory Review, which would review proposed and adopted rules and regulations and gubernatorial executive orders to assess their effects on the state’s economy; determine whether their costs on businesses, workers, and local governments outweigh their intended benefits; and establish procedures to amend or repeal regulations or executive orders that “unduly burden” businesses, workers, and local governments. The bill would also establish a three-year requirement for NJDEP to provide an annual report to the legislature on its permit applications and issuances.
As this article explains, recommendations from the Commission on Efficiency and Regulatory Review would be non-binding, so governors and their administrative agencies could ignore them—but we would prefer that they not be put in this position. It is often difficult for us to get the governor and NJDEP to take the actions that we know will improve life for all New Jersey residents, so we don’t need these additional hurdles.
The Alliance will continue to collaborate with the other opponents of the bill to try to keep it from passing.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Contact your Senate and Assembly representatives and tell them to support 100% Clean Energy (S237/A1480), the Climate Superfund Act (S3545/A4696), and the nomination of Bob Jackson to the Pinelands Commission, and to oppose changes to the Administrative Procedure Act (S4373).
In The Cocoanuts, Groucho – exasperated over explaining the viaduct – says to Chico, “I was only fooling. They’re going to build a tunnel in the morning. Now, is that clear to you?” Chico replies, “Yes. Everything – except why a duck.” We may never understand any of these ducks, but you can help your legislator understand why these bills and nominations matter to you and the Pinelands.
