The fight over New Jersey’s tough environmental justice law is now in the courts

EMILIE LOUNSBERRY / INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS – When New Jersey’s landmark environmental justice law was enacted in September 2020, there was plenty to celebrate for activists who had fought so hard to prevent more of the unrelenting pollution that has long plagued the Ironbound section of Newark, the state’s largest city.

More than five years later, the fight is still going on—but the stage has shifted largely to the courts.

In January, the state’s intermediate appellate court unanimously upheld the rules implemented to enforce the law. The recycling and construction industries that challenged the rules have asked the state Supreme Court to hear an appeal, but the state’s highest court has not yet decided whether to accept the case …