New Jersey Gov Chris Christie continues to dismiss human life as cheap

[realthog]

PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) has the story of this barbarian's latest assault on human safety in New Jersey:

CHRISTIE TO AXE JERSEY POLLUTION AND PUBLIC HEALTH RULES

"Red Tape Review Group" Issues Hit List of Regulations to Toss or Water Down

Trenton - A panel commissioned by Governor Chris Christie recommends that New Jersey jettison an array of anti-pollution, public health and smart growth rules in order to attract businesses and jobs to the Garden State. The rules targeted for repeal or revision would weaken current standards for air and water pollution, flood hazard reduction, protecting the Highlands, toxic site clean-up and even preventing toxic catastrophes, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

[. . .]

Citing the need to streamline bureaucracy and promote economic development, the Red Tape report calls for regulatory relief from a score of existing DEP regulations, including:

* Water Quality Management rules which prohibit sewer line extensions into environmentally sensitive areas such as forests, stream buffers, and endangered species habitat;
* Rules to protect the New Jersey Highlands, a region of 800,000 acres that provides water supply to over 5 million state residents, from degradation due to over-development;
* Stream buffers protections and flood hazard reduction regulations;
* Strict oversight of toxic site clean-ups managed by private consultants, under a new privatized site remediation plan enacted under Gov. Corzine;
* Coastal zone management protections, including public access rules;
* Air pollution control to allow wider variances for exceeding permit limits; and
* Relaxing rules under the Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act to prevent a repeat of the disaster at a Dow Chemical plant in Bhopal, India, where 7,000 people died from poison fumes. The report cites compliance costs to industry and questions the need for any rules beyond a federal minimum.

"This Red Tape report represents a radical assault on longstanding strict protections of New Jersey's air, water, land and natural resources," stated New Jersey PEER Director Bill Wolfe, a former DEP analyst, noting that the report lacks any factual basis for declaring listed protections as less than cost beneficial. "Under the guise of a 'common sense regulation,' the Christie folks have compiled a polluters' wish list."

Gov. Christie has embraced the Red Tape Review report.

Full story here.

It hardly needs to be pointed out that scrapping public health and safety regulations is rather like getting rid of all the fire extinguishers to cut costs. And of course, when people start dying, Christie will blame the Democrats, or climatologists, or ACORN, or the EPA . . . or anyone but his own greedy, corrupt self.

Comments

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

Governor Chris Christie

makes you wonder where he lives, surely not in NJ.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I imagine he's too ideologically blinkered and too profoundly stupid to recognize that the next glass of contaminated water might be the one he drinks.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

when you swirl that glass of water, it changes color and sparkles?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

And shortly after you've drunk it, so do you.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

aargh. Hits head on wall.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Christie's point is that he feels it's essential to balance NJ's budget. This means he must cut environmental protections, safety measures, the library services, etc., rather than (say) increasing taxes on those people who can easily afford to contribute more, or even, just as a token, reducing the perks enjoyed by NJ's legislators.

You can tell the difference between barbarians and civilized people by the means they select to solve a problem. Gov Christie's choices clearly indicate he doesn't give a fig about human life and that he regards culture and continuing education as unimportant -- i.e., that he's a barbarian.

[lagilman]

*cries*

My poor former state. My poor current state, across such a narrow river...

I wonder if we can make a citizen's arrest for attempted homicide?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I wonder if we can make a citizen's arrest for attempted homicide?

That thought has occurred to me more than once. The man's been in office just a few months, and yet already he's taken actions that will devastate the welfare of NJ and its citizens for years if not decades to come.

[chalcedony.livejournal.com]

With this guy, I get absolutely no pleasure in having been right. I do keep reminding myself that at least when he's out of office and we have to clean everything up AGAIN, the job market for my students will be terrific.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

With this guy, I get absolutely no pleasure in having been right.

My feeling exactly. I knew it was coming, but that doesn't make it easier to bear.