Since then, however, Murphy has made only passing references to climate change in major speeches. His State of the State and inaugural address and last week’s budget address barely mentioned climate issues.

Environmental groups’ concern goes beyond rhetoric. Their unease has been growing for a while.

Yes, they praise his climate goals and, yes, they praise offshore wind projects Murphy’s administration is clearing the way for, but there is worry that it’s easy to set goals but harder to keep them. They wonder now if the big promises of his first term will be kept in the second.

Anjuli Ramos-Busot, New Jersey director for the Sierra Club, said the state has made huge strides under Murphy. But with eight years left to hit his 2030 emissions goals, much more has to be done and rules that “prolong the usage and construction” of fossil fuel infrastructure are the wrong path to take.

“If we are not bold enough to cut the problematic fossil fuels market, the atmosphere will keep warming up regardless of how many wind turbines we have put up,” she said in a statement.

That comment takes aim at Murphy’s main defense of his administration and the energy issue he’s talked about most lately. Look at all the offshore wind power coming to the New Jersey coast, the administration argues. But just having more clean energy doesn’t do much if overall energy demand rises — to tackle climate change, there doesn’t just have to be more clean energy, there has to be less coal and gas energy.

Tensions began to surface last summer, when most of the state’s major environmental groups asked the Murphy administration to come up with rules to ensure New Jersey actually meets emissions reductions goals. The Department of Environmental Protection denied that request in December. Now, a subset of the environmental groups have sued the administration.

More outrage spilled out a month ago, when the DEP held what turned into a four-hour-long public hearing on its long-awaited rules to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. One main takeaway was a rare point of agreement between environmentalists and industry — both argued Murphy’s proposals don’t actually do much to curb emissions.

The power plant rules, environmental critics note, have so many loopholes that several proposed gas-fired power plants could still easily be built, including one in Newark the administration agreed to reconsider only amid massive local outcry.

As Murphy gave his major speeches to start the year, the worry grew.

After the budget speech and budget plan itself contained little about climate, top environmental leaders began to publicly express broader disappointment with the early days of Murphy’s second term.

Just six months ago, Murphy was calling for a new “playbook” for the state after unusual flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida — likely made worse by climate change — killed 30 New Jerseyans. At the time, the governor was on national TV talking about the need for federal climate spending. Back home, he was talking about the need to expand the state’s Blue Acres program, which helps to move people out of flood-prone areas.

After climate issues didn’t feature prominently in Murphy’s budget speech, Doug O’Malley, the director of Environment New Jersey, threw those words back at the governor.

“We need a new playbook from the Murphy administration to ramp down emissions in line with Gov. Murphy’s 2030 climate commitment, increased budget funding to meet our climate goals and to stop expanding new fossil fuel infrastructure if we want to limit damage to our state,” O’Malley said in a statement. “These are not status quo times and climate change will alter our state and we need increased budget funding, not ongoing budget raids. We can’t leave action on climate change on the cutting room floor.”

The “raid,” as O’Malley calls it, is the governor’s plan to take $82 million out of the state’s Clean Energy Fund and give it to NJ Transit. If nothing else, environmental groups say, don’t keep taking money from ratepayers across the state that is earmarked for energy efficiency programs and spending it on propping up a transit agency — particularly in a year where the state has a $4.2 billion surplus.

Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, has generally — but not always — shown more patience with the governor than other environmental leaders. But he called the $82 million move a missed opportunity and a “shell game” with utility ratepayer dollars.

“I don’t think in a tight budget you would have me being as disappointed, because I’m realistic,” Potosnak said. “But given where the state stands, it shouldn’t be a gimmick the governor is relying on.”

The Murphy administration pushed back against such criticism. Even in a budget speech focused on affordability and tax relief, climate got a mention. The governor made a reference to the “clean energy economy” and the budget itself has $30 million for electrifying the state’s vehicle fleet, $10 million for green jobs related work, $5 million for urban parks and money for new climate change education standards for schools. The budget also leaves a huge opening to use chunks of $3 billion in leftover federal pandemic money on flood-related projects. Senior administration officials have also hinted Murphy will announce plans to expand Blue Acres in coming months.

“Gov. Murphy remains committed to addressing the critical and urgent issue of climate change,” administration spokesperson Michael Zhadanovsky said in a statement. “The governor has continued to put environmental justice and equity at the forefront of his agenda, while also focusing on the economic development benefits that clean energy will bring to communities across the state. Over the last four years, the governor has turned New Jersey into a leader in renewable energy with the ongoing development of the New Jersey Wind Port, the prioritization of New Jersey’s first utility-scale offshore wind farms, and extremely successful electric vehicle and solar incentive programs.”

In a call with the press last week, Murphy’s top environmental regulator, DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette, said criticism of the administration’s climate work comes from a “misunderstanding” about the “iterative” nature of regulatory change. He said DEP is working through dozens of different regulatory processes to reduce emissions — but it’ll take time.

“The governor has set the course in order to achieve those goals,” LaTourette said. “I don’t think you’re going to hear more from him beyond what you’ve heard because he has given us the charge.”

He cited four different executive orders Murphy has signed on climate change.

LaTourette said there were going to be more regulations coming from the administration this year, notably long-awaited rules about development in flood-prone areas. There will also be long-awaited regulations to prevent certain kinds of destructive projects in “overburdened” communities, the result of a landmark 2020 law to help environmental justice communities.

Yet, LaTourette has also acknowledged during recent testimony before the Senate Environment and Energy Committee that environmentalists have “well-placed” concerns about the power plant rules.

“In some ways we’re at the beginning of the beginning because we should have started so much sooner,” he told lawmakers. “But, again, this is just the first step.”