environment – Page 12

Corzine backing the wrong greens

Every time I turn around, the Corzine administration proves to be a disappointment. He promised to tackle the budget and ethics issues, but has taken only the smallest of steps. And now, the governor is taking a page from the Republican regulatory book, creating a task force to review the development permit process.

Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection, dismissed the attacks as she unveiled the task force proposal today. She said it may find ways to expedite and streamline DEP reviews of urban redevelopment projects, for example, that aid the state’s economic growth.

“It’s not about weakening or changing our environmental regulations or protections….First and foremost is the protection of human health, the environment and our natural resources,” Jackson said. “But the way our process is now, every permit is treated the same, and that doesn’t seem to be the smart way to go.”

Task forces like this almost always tend to back industry — a fact that environmental groups understand from their time fighting the Whitman administration’s anti-environmental agenda. Gov. Whitman eliminated the public advocate, gutted the state Department of Environmental Protection and created a business ombudsman charged with helping businesses navigate red tape — moves designed to privilege business over the state’s average residents.

The first President Bush used a similar task force, headed by Vice President Dan Quayle, to gut regulations.

Jackson says that won’t happen, but the timing of the proposal was curious, coming

two weeks after a Department of Community Affairs subcommittee report surfaced recommending environmental regulations be eased to allow the construction of affordable housing in suburban and rural areas.

That report said DEP regulations are skewed against builders and recommended giving the state Planning Commission the power to override DEP rules and local building laws.

“The DCA joined the builders in cynically blaming environmental regulation for the economy hurting, and this task force is the administration’s cover for an environmental roll-back in New Jersey,” said Bill Wolfe of the New Jersey chapter of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Has the governor decided to place business interests above the interests of state residents? He has not done much of late to dissuade me from this fear.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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McCain’s erratic environmentalism

More McCain environmentalism — well, environmental schizophrenia maybe a better description of his record. Matthew Yglesias points to a piece by Brad Plumer in The New Republic that outlines his erratic approach.

One of the things that strikes me about this is that McCain seems to wing things — a tendency that is not confined to his environmental record, but to most of his domestic agenda. As Yglesias writes:

The overall picture of the domestic McCain continues to be of a kind of ignorant conservatism punctuated by bursts of thoughtless stabs at reform.

In a word: erratic. Not exactly a trait you want in someone occupying the Oval Office.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

How green is McCain?

Centrists and independents are likely to take a close look at the candidacy of John McCain in the coming months, especially once the GOP attack machine gets revved up and starts painting the Democratic candidate as some kind of raving socialist.

Independents and centrists with a green bent, however, would do well to read this piece from The Nation, which should stand as a primer on McCain’s environmental credentials.

A sample:

The media touts McCain’s stance on climate as evidence of his straight talkin’ maverickosity. Conservative stalwarts assail McCain for his heresy (Romney attacked McCain’s climate bill in Michigan and Florida). The public hails him for reaching across the aisle. Even Democrats and greens seem inclined to give him a grade of Good Enough on climate.

This is a classic case of what our president calls the soft bigotry of low expectations. Judged against his fellow Republicans, McCain is a paragon of atmospheric wisdom. Judged against the climate and energy legislation afoot in Congress, he falls short. Judged against the two leading Democratic presidential candidates, he is a pale shadow. Judged against the imperatives of climate science — that is to say, judged against brute physical reality — he isn’t even in the ballpark.

It’s time to stop grading McCain on a curve.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.