MEGAN DIDN’T JUST STUDY THE CLIMATE CRISIS. SHE SPENT HER CAREER FIGHTING IT FROM INSIDE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND SHE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT CONGRESS NEEDS TO DO TO PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT AND FUND A CLEAN ENERGY FUTURE FOR NEW JERSEY.

New Jersey’s 7th District has a pollution problem that demands more than good intentions. More than 335 facilities in our district have violated the Clean Water Act. Nine active National Priority Superfund sites sit unaddressed in our communities. Forever chemicals linked to cancer and thyroid disease are in our water. And the Trump Administration is actively dismantling the federal agencies and programs built to protect us.

Megan O’Rourke spent eight years as a federal climate scientist, including five years leading climate change science at USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, where she oversaw approximately $200 million in annual funding. As a Brookings Congressional Fellow and senior advisor to Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, she learned firsthand how Congress funds, oversees, and advances environmental policy. She didn’t just study these problems. She managed the programs designed to solve them.

That experience is exactly what NJ-07 needs right now: someone who understands the science, knows how federal dollars flow, and won’t stop fighting until the EPA is restored, our clean energy investments are protected, and NJ-07 communities have the clean air and water they deserve.

Industry & Pollution

The numbers tell a damning story. In NJ-07, 335 regulated facilities—one in five—violated the Clean Water Act for at least nine months in the last three years. Our district’s industrial pollution record is worse than 80% of congressional districts nationwide. At least 9 unaddressed Superfund sites sit in our communities, leaching toxins into soil and groundwater. And forever chemicals—PFAS compounds linked to kidney cancer, thyroid disease, and developmental harm in children—have been detected across the district’s water supply. This didn’t happen because the problems were unsolvable. It happened because Congress looked the other way.

In Congress, Megan will fight to:

• Use Congressional oversight authority to ensure the EPA enforces existing Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act violations starting with the 335 facilities in NJ-07 that have been out of compliance for nine months or longer.
• Restore EPA enforcement funding and staffing gutted by the Trump Administration.
• Use Congressional oversight authority to ensure New Jersey’s landmark settlements with DuPont ($875 million in direct payments, up to $1.2 billion in cleanup) and 3M ($450 million) reach NJ-07 communities with documented PFAS contamination and help constituents navigate the process of receiving their payouts.
• Restore and codify the EPA’s PFAS drinking water limits into federal law, mandate treatment for PFAS discharge entering waterways, and create a publicly accessible federal dashboard with weekly updates on PFAS monitoring across NJ-07.
• Restore EPA environmental justice grants and direct them to the NJ-07 communities that have borne the heaviest pollution burdens.
• Introduce federal legislation modeled on New Jersey’s ‘Polluters Pay to Make New Jersey More Affordable’ Act (a.k.a. the ‘Climate Superfund’ Act) to require fossil fuel companies to pay cost recovery fees proportional to their historical greenhouse gas emissions towards climate adaptation and resilience projects.

Energy & Climate

Since 1895, the average annual temperature inNew Jersey has risen by nearly 4.0°F. And NJ-07 residents are living the consequences. Severe storms and altered rainfall have intensified flooding across the district, from Cedar Brook in Plainfield, where floodwaters claimed lives in 2025, to the Raritan River corridor in Bridgewater, where the American Cyanamid Superfund site has been inundated by storms including Ida, Irene, and Floyd. Longer heat waves and days lost to wildfire smoke are no longer rare events. They are our present reality.

Meeting this moment requires federal action on climate, clean energy, and grid resilience. New Jersey sits within PJM (the regional transmission organization serving 65 million people across 13 states) whose decisions about how electricity is generated and transmitted directly affect our energy bills, grid reliability, and progress toward a clean energy future. As a Ph.D. climate scientist who oversaw $200 million in federal climate research annually, Megan knows exactly what Congress needs to do, and she will fight to make it happen.

In Congress, Megan will work to:

• Codify into federal law EPA’s Endangerment Finding, the scientific and legal foundation that had given EPA authority to regulate carbon pollution under the Clean Air Act until the Trump Administration gutted it.
• Undo the Trump Administration’s assault on New Jersey’s clean energy future by repealing the One Big Beautiful Bill provisions that eliminated EV tax credits, killed residential solar incentives, and rescinded over $5 billion in clean energy grant funding; restoring the Inflation Reduction Act programs that had been lowering energy bills and creating clean energy jobs in New Jersey; and lifting the freeze on federal offshore wind permitting.
• Introduce legislation requiring the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure that AI data centers pay their share of grid costs rather than shifting large infrastructure expenses to residential ratepayers.
• Restore funding for USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program to help NJ-07’s rural small businesses and agricultural producers access grants and loan guarantees for renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements.

Land & Water

NJ-07 sits at the edge of the New Jersey Highlands, the 80,000-acre forested watershed that supplies drinking water to more than 70% of New Jersey residents, including communities throughout Somerset, Morris, and Union counties. That supply is under pressure. Upstream, development and agricultural runoff are raising stream temperatures and triggering harmful algal blooms. Downstream, industrial contamination and aging infrastructure threaten water quality within NJ-07 communities. Yet the Trump Administration is intentionally weakening the federal programs that help states and municipalities address both.

In Congress, Megan will be a champion to:

• Restore funding for USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program so that NJ-07 farmers can again access federal support for sustainable practices, including cover cropping, integrated pest management, and nutrient management.
• Restore funding for USDA’s Agricultural Conservation Easement Program so that NJ-07 farmers and landowners can resume protection of Highlands farms, forests, and wetlands that supply clean drinking water to millions of New Jerseyans.
• Protect and fully deploy Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for lead service line replacement in NJ-07 communities.
• Direct Congressional appropriations to flood-vulnerable NJ-07 communities where engineered solutions have repeatedly proven insufficient and green infrastructure, such as riparian buffers and floodplain restoration, is targeted for cuts by this Administration.
• Introduce legislation creating a federal resilience fund for inland and riverine communities (similar to what exists for coastal communities) so that managers of the Raritan, Passaic, and other flood-prone waterways can access funding before the next disaster, not just relief after it.