Today was a wild day in Trenton.
Maybe that bad press on the bear hunt is having a perverse effect – creating the need for government officials to do something positive for the environment.
Who knows – regardless of motives, it was a big day.
Just as the legislature moved final actions on a 7 bill package to protect Barnegat Bay developed over the last 2 years, Governor Christie issued a desperate press release to announce his own 10 point restoration plan.
The Christie plan includes the shutdown of Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in 10 years and abandonment of the draft cooling tower NJPDES permit issued by DEP last December. (see safety risks)
The Assembly heard a bill to impose a moratorium on NJ DRBC member support of the controversial gas well drilling practice known as fracking.
The Senate conducted oversight of DEP’s implementation of the privatized LSP site remediation program.
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) released draft regulations on fracking.
The Senate moved a fisherman backed bill to prohibit fees for a salt water registry mandated by federal law.
Any single one of these is a significant environmental story. All in own day is unique and exhausting.
Jeff Tittel was out of town, leaving the spin cycle to Chrisite cover man Dave Pringle and the depleted press corps.
I will provide more detailed summaries and analysis of all this tomorrow – just got home and am exhausted.
Thanks Bill. A more detailed summary will be much appreciated!
@Joe
Thanks Joe – I just posted up a summary of the fracking bill and issues at DRBC. I have yet to review the DRBC draft regualtions. That is on my to do list.
By Monday, I hope to have reviews of the Christie Barnegat Bay Plan and the oversight of the LSP site remediation program.
I did a prior post on the salt water license fee issue, see this:
http://www.wolfenotes.com/2008/04/nj-fish-game-funding-solution/
Don’t think I’ll get to a bear hunt rap up – unless I go to protests tomorrow adn get good pics.