Republicans want to escalate energy policy into a major political issue this year as Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration defends controversial comments about electric vehicles.
In an interview given last month and published yesterday, Katie Klinger, the director of the Governor’s Office of Climate Action and the Green Economy, has ignited some controversy as she tries to defend Murphy’s policies.
“You could get a hybrid, you could get an EV, you could go to another state that has not adopted (this regulation),” she said in the interview with ROI-NJ.
While Klinger was trying to emphasize that there are no mandates and that residents have options related to electric vehicles, she might have given Republicans political gold, especially with the comment that residents could leave New Jersey.
“That seems completely disrespectful of our residents,” Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco told the New Jersey Globe.
Klinger’s comments also came under fire from the New Jersey Fuel Merchants Association, the trade association with the most to lose once Murphy’s move to all-electric cars is fully implemented.
“The legislative election is a little over 60 days away. Every candidate for Senate and Assembly needs to tell the public are they supportive of Governor Murphy’s ‘electrify everything’ agenda or not,” said Eric DeGesaro, who runs the group. “Maybe the Murphy Administration doesn’t care what happens to New Jersey when he leaves office, but the rest of us do.”
Assemblywoman Bethanne McCarthy Patrick (R-Mannington) also released a statement today criticizing Klinger’s comments.
“We have unelected bureaucrats shoving the governor’s rules down our throats,” McCarthy Patrick said in a press release. “The government needs to stop forcing people to buy things. Let the market do what the market does.”
Klinger’s remarks might be receiving added attention because of how reminiscent they are of comments about taxes that Gov. Murphy made in 2019.
“If you’re a one-issue voter, and tax rate is your issue – either a family or a business, if that’s the only basis upon which you’re going to make a decision, we’re probably not your state,” Murphy said at a Rowan University forum.
Republicans latched onto these comments, which were recorded, and made them central in the 2019 legislative races and the 2021 gubernatorial race.
They could use Klinger’s comments to the same – if not greater – effect this year, albeit less effectively since she’s relatively obscure. Still, her comments add fodder to the Republican case on energy and affordability in the state.
“Promise: if Republicans take control of the Senate, there will be checks and balances against all of these policies that are hurting our families and parents,” Bucco said.
Over the past few months, for example, Republicans have criticized off-shore wind farms as being detrimental to the state’s tourism and marine wildlife, even though there is no evidence that the construction projects are responsible for dead whales, and they have voiced mainly concerns over Murphy’s plans to expand electrification throughout the state.
Murphy’s office rebukes the criticisms as misinformation that does not accurately represent what Klinger said or the policies.
“We really are going about implementing these policies by preserving customer choice,” said Bailey Lawrence, a spokesman for Murphy. “That’s what Kate is getting at – there is a variety of things you could do; we are not trying to force people to do anything either way — we are offering people a choice. With that choice, there are very real economic and financial benefits.”