Christie Transition Team Seeks “Horror Stories” To Push Environmental Rollbacks

[Update: 11/15/09 – the drumbeat continues, unanswered by environmentalists. Does this steamroller have enough momentum yet?

“Several Morris County Republicans talked about an opportunity to be part of making changes in the state, such as streamlining environmental regulations to spur development and working on government efficiency issues.”

See: Daily Record story]

Here we go again. The Republican-business community Orwellian Wurlitzer big lie machine is being ginned up.

To use the Christie transition process, Republican leadership has put out the word in the NJ business community to drum up “horror stories” on the impacts of regulations. This is an orchestrated effort to mislead policy makers and the public in order to rollback all sorts of public protections from business excess, especially for the environment and public health.

According to NJBIZ,

Assembly Republican Executive Director Rick Wright said the transition team is interested in hearing from businesses about how regulations affect them. He encouraged the audience at a New Jersey Chamber of Commerce breakfast Friday morning to show the transition team “the horrors that they need to hear about regarding regulations” effect on businesses.

So, the Christie Transition Team will be inundated with all sorts of anecdotes and alleged horror stories explicitly designed to mislead. Given the composition and bias of that group, they will lack expertise and experience to evaluate the merits of this sort of propaganda.

Worse, there is no public process during the transition, which tends to be secretive. Therefore, there will be no independent check on the process, to provide countervailing information, to correct errors, to create a context for misinformation, and to reject flat out falsehoods and bad information likely to be submitted.

This is a very poor policy-making process and – given Christie’s regulatory animus – a prescription for disaster.

This regulatory rollback process – to be headed up by Lieutenant Governor Guadagno – now even comes with an appropriately Orwellian name: “The Red Tape Review Group”.

As I’ve been warning my colleagues and the press corps, now is the time to circle the wagons and begin to defend against this onslaught.

If folks think this is some kind of abstract, theoretical public policy threat, consider the reckless action last night in Independence Township. The Town is defiantly violating the NJ Highlands Act and looking to Christie for regulatory relief:

Independence Township Rejects State Highlands Law Mandate (click for full article)

By Warren Reporter

November 14, 2009, 8:59AM

INDEPENDENCE TWP.  – With “nothing to lose,” the Township Committee has decided to tread the waters of municipal civil disobedience by voting unanimously Nov. 11 to not conform with the state-mandated Highlands Regional Master Plan’s preservation area requirements. The township, to date, is the only Highlands preservation area municipality to officially reject plan conformance. …

Giordano said he is hoping Independence’s action will inspire other municipalities with similar concerns to do the same. The mayor said he is also hopeful Governor-elect Chris Christie will be able to intervene to “curtail” Highlands regulations.