Green Jersey

N.J. Sierra Club’s cheers and jeers

The New Jersey Sierra Club yesterday issued an Earth Day Report Card, a list of cheers and jeers for those who protected our environment, or should have. Every day should be Earth Day, and these are people who have done a great (or horrible) job for us throughout the year, they said. Their list is below.

Cheer: President Barack Obama, who is living up to his campaign platform of protecting the environment, promoting clean energy and fighting climate change He also deserves credit for his appointment of Lisa Jackson to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Jeer: Governor Jon Corzine for privatizing site remediation, cutting the DEP budget by more than 30 percent, pushing through the biggesst expansion of sprawl highways in a generation and failing to implement global warming legislation. We’re also giving him a jeer for trying to close state parks, inaction on the Delaware deepening and the weakening of many other environmental rules. However, Corzine does deserve some credit for his work on offshore wind and Petty’s Island.

Cheer: Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, who we worked well with in New Jersey and who is now reversing many of the harmful Bush Administration policies. Jackson had declared carbon dioxide a health risk, allowing the EPA to now regulate carbon emissions.

Jeer: The New Jersey Legislature for the most anti-environmental legislative session in more than a decade. They approved the Permit Extension Act, which was so bad that even the Bush Administration thought it weakened environmental protections, the Licensed Site Professional bill, and Sunday hunting. They passed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative bill, which was more about pork than clean energy. All this while failing to pass any major environmental legislation or establishing funding for open space.

Cheer: Congressman Bill Pascrell for working diligently to get the Paterson Great Falls declared a national park.

Jeer: The Pinelands Commission, for pushing through the biggest weakening of Pinelands protections since the Pinelands Act was passed 30 years ago. They approved the pro-development cluster ordinance in the forest preservation areas and the illogical septic swapping in Buena Township. They also failed to do any mitigation for the widening of the Parkway.

Cheer: Sen. Frank Lautenberg for getting $100 million to New Jersey to help clean contaminated sites.

Jeer: The New Jersey DEP for pushing through a sewer plant amendment in Holland Township that will not only promote sprawl but will also deplete groundwater in the Highlands. DEP took the builders side and promoted a rule on substantive reliance, which is the biggest weakening of wetlands protection in New Jersey since the Wetlands Act was passed.

Cheer and jeer: The Highlands Council gets a cheer for taking their job seriously on wastewater management plans and recommending against sewer amendments for Holland Township, Pinnacle in Oakland and the Trump Golf Course. But they get a jeer for adopting a Highlands Plan that allows for development in wastershed basins that are in deficit and approving a bad clustering provision on farmland.

Cheer: Frank Pallone for getting chairmanship of the Health Subcommittee on the Energy and Commerce Committee and taking it away from Congressional smog that would have blocked key legislation. We’re glad to have a strong ally leading a key subcommittee.

Jeer: New Jersey’s Council on Affordable Housing, for adopting rules that would promote sprawl and overdevelopment in environmentally sensitive areas while failing to adequately meet the needs of affordable housing in the state. COAH’s numbers are so skewed that they counted cemeteries and highway medians as open space. This resulted in towns like Ringwood having higher COAH obligations than growth towns like Secaucus in Hudson County.

Cheer: Sen. Robert Menendez or being a key leader in the Senate on climate change and energy legislation. Sen. Menendez has also worked to make sure that New Jersey gets its fair share from the budget and the stimulus to apply to clean energy, clean water and other environmental programs.

Jeer: NJDOT, which should be called the New Jersey Department of Traffic, for promoting the biggest highway widening programs in a generation. DOT’s proposals to widen the Turnpike and the Parkway will promote sprawl. Other bad programs proposed by the New Jersey DOT include the Lackawanna cutoff, the Route 206 widening, and the widening of the Atlantic City Expressway.

Cheer and jeer: The Energy Master Plan gets both a cheer and jeer. The plan started out weak by promoting fossil fuels and nuclear power, and ended up strong by supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency. We give credit to Jeanne Fox and Lisa Jackson for supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency. We give credit to Fox and Jackson for helping to make this plan better and to Gov. Corzine for adopting it. We also give a jeer because we’ve yet to see action in implementation.

Jeer: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission for relicensing the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant, the oldest and one of the most unsafe plants in the country. By allowing this plant to operate for another 20 years, the NRC is showing that it cares more about protecting the profits of the nuclear industry than public health and safety.

Cheer: Margo Pellegrino of Medford Lakes, who has paddled thousands of miles along the Eastern Seaboard to draw attention to the importance of protecting our oceans.

Visit the Sierra Club online at newjersey.sierraclub.org.