Environmentalists Blast Corzine for signing builders bailout bill
Sierra Club and Environmental Federation issue harsh statements – builders lobby applauds
Governor Jon CorzineToday, the national press reported that that the Bush Administration publicly announced a massive taxpayer bailout of Fannie May and Freddie Mac to shore up the home mortgage industry and financial markets:
“Wall Street finally got what it’s been angling for: a bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that could aid a recovery of the broken U.S. housing market and arrest a slide in stock and credit markets worldwide.”
see: Wall Street may cheer Fannie, Freddie bailout
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jy692KLMSLspHP266VKGfJPAR1CgD932FEK00
At the same time here in NJ, there were more giveaways to “stimulate” the building industry. In a sharp contrast to last Friday’s high profile environmental photo-op on the Highlands, Governor Corzine quietly signed into law his own housing market “regulatory relief” bill backed by builders lobby, known as “The Permit Extension Act” (see last line of today’s press release:
http://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/2008/approved/20080908a.html
The NJ builders lobby also “finally got what it was angling for”. And as expected, the business community and Wall Street are cheering the Corzine move too. See: Permit Extension Bill is Now Law
http://www.globest.com/news/1240_1240/newjersey/173615-1.html
Whatever you think about the wisdom of the Bush bailout, at least it was directly related to the causes of a real financial crisis in the housing industry.
In contrast, the bill signed by Corzine was a sham.
Simply put, the NJ builders lobby shamefully exploited a real national financial crisis to undermine completely unrelated State environmental protections.
And just how bad is it when the Bush EPA is opposed to it?
DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson whispers in Governor Corzine’s ear. Jackson negotiated the Permit Extension ActSurprisingly, the notoriously anti-environmental Bush EPA went on record to oppose the “Permit Extension Act”, warning the Governor and the Legislature that the bill would violate federal law. DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson deftly negotiated window dressing amendments to address EPA’s opposition, but the underlying problems that prompted EPA to intervene remain. And the Jackson amendments protected the “green” areas of the state while treating the urban areas of NJ as environmental sacrifice zones. So much for the rhetoric on environmental justice and new green building design to address global warming.
Where is the economic relief for thousands of NJ homeowners facing home foreclosure and bankruptcy?
Read the environmental group statements:
Sierra Club Blasts Governor for Signing Permit Extension Act
Jeff Tittel, Executive Director Sierra CLub, NJ Chapter“Over the weekend Governor Corzine signed the Permit Extension Act. This was done behind closed doors and without putting out any kind of statement. . “The Permit Extension Act is one of the worst environmental bills ever passed by the New Jersey legislators and one of the biggest giveaways to developers in the state’s history,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “The way in which the governor chose to sign this bill shows just how bad this bill is – he couldn’t even sign it in public or let the public know what he was doing.”
[full statement here: http://newjersey.sierraclub.org/PressReleases/0029.asp
The NJ Environmental Federation’s release said:
Corzine Signs Controversial Bill Undermining Core Environmental Protections
Signed in “Dead of Night”, Announced 2 Days After The Fact Befitting Act’s ‘Dracula Clause’
Dave Pringle, NJ Environmental FederationTrenton, NJ — Environmentalists today strongly criticized Governor Corzine’s signing of the highly controversial Permit Extension Act (Greenwald/Sarlo). The Governor signed the bill Saturday but only announced it today with one sentence in a press release mentioning several other bills.
“We’ll be seeing the Governor in court. This bill undermines core environmental and public health protections, good planning and the constitution,” stated David Pringle, Campaign Director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation (NJEF), noting the manner in which the bill was signed betrayed the Act’s supposed intent. “If this bill was really going to provide the economic stimulus suggested, where was all the pomp and circumstance typical of such a bill signing?”
Over 30 environmental groups had asked the Governor to conditionally veto the bill on substantive grounds while lawyers for two, including NJEF, did so on legal grounds. The Governor’s office ignored the letters never even formally or informally acknowledging them despite repeated requests.
[see Corzine letter: Download file
We previously wrote about this issue in this post:
A cruel hoax – on many levels
http://blog.nj.com/njv_bill_wolfe/2008/07/a_cruel_hoax_on_many_levels.html
Roy Jones of Camden, Co-Chair of South Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance
Bill,
I still don’t get it. These permits were issued after extensive investment to meet existing regulations at the time. Of course regulations change, but your ‘outrage’ seems to suggest some someone is getting something for free or some personal pet peev.
There is a Senior Housing development site next to where I work. They’ve stopped working on the site because of the mortgage crunch. It looks worse than a battle zone. Are you suggesting they should not complete this project if it fails new permits? That would be far worse than if they completed it.
Surely the owner would be bankrupted, and the land would remain a decimated eyesore for years.
Is there anything in the bill that takes into consideration that circumstances may be quite different from when those original permits were issued, to the end point of the bill’s extension?
JerseyOpine – yes, there is, but it is not explicit. There is a provision that would allow the DEP Commissioner some discretion to block truly harmful projects – in Section 4.d.:
Nothing in this act shall affect the ability of the
Commissioner of Environmental Protection to revoke or modify a
specific permit or approval, or extension thereof pursuant to this
act, when that specific permit or approval contains language
authorizing the modification or revocation of the permit or approval
by the department.
betternj – Some of what you perceive as “outrage” (did I use that term?) is due to the basic dishonesty of the process and the pandering to powerful builders lobby. This is bad public policy and politics at its worst.
No personal peeve involved here – I strongly opposed prior two permit extension acts passed under Florio and Whitman administrations.
I am not suggesting that projects under construction be blocked –
The private sector can not blame government and DEP regulation for failures that have nothing to do with them.
Changes in rules are important – there are unkown nubers of large projects that will be allowed to destroy the envrionment as a result of this law.
Some of them may not have enough water opr sewer capacity. Or destroy critical habitat. Or emit large amounts of CO2. Or fail to include energy efficiency or renewable energy. Or offset or mitigate their impacts, et al.
Not every issue was examined under the existing permit scheme – that’s why DEP regulations need to be strengthened.