Christie’s Last State of State: About Time

Governor Christie is delivering his last State of the State address today. While our Governor has rolled back protections for the environment, he has threatened clean water and open space, while increasing New Jersey’s impact on climate change. When you look at his record, he is clearly the worst governor for the environment in state history. All he really has to boast about is the damage to the environment he has done since he’s been in office. Jeff Tittel, Director of New Jersey Sierra Club released the following statement:

“Fortunately, this is Chris Christie’s last ‘State of the State’ address so he can’t do any more damage to New Jersey’s environment. Some of his actions will be affecting us for years after he’s gone including his failure to address sea level rise and climate change, as well as his clean water rollbacks. Under his watch, the New Jersey state government is broke and broken. After eight years of destruction in New Jersey, it is not a surprise that Christie one of the lowest rated Governors in state history.

“No matter how bad he’s been, he’ll be taking a victory lap for his Administration. It’s like the Captain of the Titanic taking a victory lap around the deck before it sinks. He has sacrificed New Jersey’s environment by attempting to roll back 40 years of environmental protections. At the same time, people are still homeless from Hurricane Sandy and those living at the shore are more vulnerable to the next storm because Christie denies climate change. While our parks are falling apart our Governor has not updated the Water Supply Master Plan, or increased standards for toxic chemicals. Christie even slashed the DEP staff by 40 percent, while cutting environmental programs by a third.

“While Governor, Christie has pushed pipelines and vetoed the frack waste ban. He has settled deals to keep our nuclear plants open and removed our state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative, losing us 1,800 jobs. He even tried to push through the South Jersey Gas pipeline in the Pinelands for the third time even though four former Governor’s opposed it. Christie even settled a more than $9-billion-dollar sweetheart deal to Exxon instead of making them clean up their contamination throughout New Jersey, Sierra Club and others are still fighting the deal in Court.

“The effects that climate change could potentially have on New Jersey can be devastating from storm surges to flooding. The solution to mitigating these effects is investing in clean energy sources, however; Christie had continuously favored fossil fuels over renewable energy. Before Christie came in office, there were 11,000 solar jobs in the state, but now there are only 6,000. We used to do forty megawatts a month and now we’re doing eight. As a result, New Jersey has dropped from and 2nd to 8th in solar in the nation. As the solar market as changed, we need the BPU to address the changes in technology and improvements in solar.

“The Christie Administration has attacked clean water to protect developers and special interests. The rollbacks in the Flood Hazard rules allow for less protections of waterways and more development in environmentally sensitive areas. Then the Administration targeted the most environmentally sensitive Forest Preservation Area that helps protect our drinking water based on arbitrary science with the Highlands Septic rule. His Administration also weakened the Wetlands Rules and the Water Quality Management Planning Rules. These weakenings, combined with his refusal to acknowledge climate change, has made our state more vulnerable to pollution and flooding.

“Christie has been the worst governor in state history environment and may even be overall in New Jersey. Governor Byrne is known for the Pinelands Protections Act, Governor Whitman, for protecting open space, and Governor Kean for the Wetlands Law, and the list goes on. Governor Christie’s legacy may actually be undoing the environmental legacy of other governors. Christie has left damage from rolling back environmental protections, undercutting jobs, and making us more vulnerable to the next storm, that will live on for decades. Chris Christie has been a failed Governor and has failed our state.

“We are looking forward to working with the incoming Murphy Administration to make New Jersey an environmental and clean energy leader once more. We must reverse the dangerous rollbacks from the Christie Administration and change our policies on climate change and sea level rise. We must favor clean, renewable energy over dirty fossil fuels. Phil Murphy has a strong environmental and energy agenda, including a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2050. We are confident that under new leadership, New Jersey will be able to reverse the environmental damage from Christie and move forward.”