The Wisdom of Solomon – Is NJEF Credibilty Shot Yet?

Lee Solomon – President, BPU

Today’s Star Ledger Auditor column reports that there was a behind the scenes battle in Governor Christie’s Cabinet on his controversial global warming denial comments.

The Auditor claims that Lee Solomon was the global warming denier: Global warming splits the Christie administration

Gov. Chris Christie might have raised some eyebrows when he announced he was “deferring to scientists” on the issue of global warming after being “skeptical”, but it seems to have come after some division in his office.

The Auditor has learned that in the lead-up to Christie’s Thursday announcement that he would pull out of the regional cap-and trade program designed to reduce greenhous gases, there was a split between his advisors.

Supporting the view that global warming is a man-made occurrence was Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Robert Martin. On the other side was Lee Solomon, the president of the Board of Public Utilities.

Multiple sources tell The Auditor that behind closed doors, Solomon wasn’t shy about his skepticism over global warming.

So, I thought I’d remind folks of what the Christie backing NJ Environmental Federation said on Jan. 21, 2010 about Mr. Solomon:

Christie’s BPU pick has a green past for a green future

 

Trenton, NJ — The NJ Environmental Federation (NJEF) released the following statement in response to Governor Christie’s pick today to head the BPU.

“Lee Solomon has the legal, environmental, personal, and political background to ensure a cleaner, greener 21st century. While we’ve obviously worked less with him more recently given his role as a judge and prosecutor, Lee Solomon was an environmental ally as a Freeholder and Assemblyman. His strong opposition to proposed garbage incinerators in Camden and Pennsauken, the latter of which was stopped, because of their negative enviromental and economic impacts bodes well for today. We need clean solutions for tomorrow not dirty ideas from the past. That’s Governor Christie’s agenda. That’s why we endorsed him and we look forward to working again with Lee to implement that agenda,” said Sharon Finlayson, NJEF’s Board Chair.

In addition to the Governor’s energy as industry agenda (http://christiefornj.com/issues/energy-as-industry.html) , BPU will play an important role implementing some of the key pieces of the Governor’s environmental agenda including but not limited to:

• Aggressively implementing the Global Warming Response Act and Energy Master Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with greater emphasis on clean renewables and energy efficiency;
• Enacting policies in the first 100 days to stop the fish slaughter resulting from flawed cooling systems at the Salem and Oyster Creek nuclear plants; and
• Opposing the proposed Linden coal plant, recognizing the environmental injustice it places on a community already overburdened by pollution.

Ahem… is it toast yet? Stick a fork in it!