WolfeNotes.com

Spinning Out of Control 

Christie’ Slogan Based Facade Crumbling

History, Open Space, Climate – All Part of Orwellian PR Facade 

Bear with me as I put today’s outrageous quote by Gov. Christie on climate change and Sandy in context.

That context – and the real science and policy implications – are being missed by the political focus on “gotcha” climate change denial aspects of the Gov.’s remarks (e.g. for a typical example, see:  Chris Christie Joins the Yahoos, Says No ‘Proof’ Climate Change Caused Sandy).

Although there is a 3+ year history, let’s start small and from events just last week.

In a move that surely wins a chutzpah award, the DEP press office issued a release and DEP held a big event to celebrate the opening of Petty’s Run historical and archaeological site in Trenton, see:

PETTY’S RUN ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE AT CAPITOL COMPLEX NOW OPEN TO PUBLIC
HISTORIC SITE PROVIDES A PEEK INTO THE STATE’S INDUSTRIAL PAST

(13/P53) TRENTON – The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Department of Treasury and Mercer County today unveiled the Petty’s Run interpretive archaeological site located between the State House and the Old Barracks Museum in Trenton.

One little thing DEP forgot to mention in all those celebrations: both Governor Christie and DEP Commissioner Martin tried to bury the site – bury it, as in cover with dirt.(see:  Christie Buries Trenton’s History – Kills 1730′s Petty’s Run Restoration

That big balls DEP move was followed by this even bigger one, in a blazing headline directly from the Front Office:

Governor Christie Announces $300 Million Buyout Plan To Give Homeowners The Option To Sell Sandy-Damaged (sic)

Ooops, they looks like they forgot to mention what the Asbury Park Press editors called a “major caveat” and “poison pill”  (their words, not mine) – a May  17, 2013 APP editorial concluded:

Hooray for the governor!

Except … there’s one catch. A big one. Actually, it’s not just a catch, but more like a poison pill that could cause the entire program to fail.

Christie says the state doesn’t want to “waste” its money on individual homes. Officials want to make sure they’re able to take control of clusters of homes or complete neighborhoods to allow for an entire area to be demolished and left open for future flood mitigation.

That means nearly every homeowner in a particular area will have to be willing to sell and leave, or there may be no buyouts at all. Then those who were flooded out will be left high and dry.

The chances of such sweeping acceptance aren’t great, especially depending upon the size of the clusters the state has in mind. Christie’s answer to that is for residents to convince reluctant neighbors over a few bottles of wine.

Revealing the Gov.’s stunning cynicism and hypocrisy, at a time when the Gov. is taking credit for spending federal taxpayers’ money on buying vulnerable land (with no plan or policy to guide those expenditures), here at home in NJ,  the Star Ledger editors correctly criticized the Gov.’s broken promises on open space funding:

Christie has broken his promise on open space

 

And after nearly four years of dawdling by the Christie administration — as open space purchases shrink each year — environmentalists are eager to set up a stable source of funding. …

Gov. Chris Christie, meanwhile, is sticking to his own approach: Ignore the issue entirely. When he first ran for governor, he promised to keep the ball rolling on open space. But now, he is breaking that promise. He has still not found a stable funding source for open space, as he once pledged to do.

On his watch, New Jersey continues to preserve less and less green space and farmland every year. And our state money for open space is rapidly diminishing. In the next fiscal year, New Jersey will spend $100 million to preserve open space and farmland, according to a report on NJ Spotlight. That’s at least $50 million less than it traditionally does. The following fiscal year, the total will be only $40 million, at most.

Federal buyout money we receive in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy can help prevent flooding, but that’s just one use for open space. What about the need to protect our water supply? It’s much more expensive to treat drinking water than it is to just protect it from pollution with open space.

Today’s WNYC story brings another whopper from DEP.

Today, the DEP issued a press release, using – of all people! – Princeton scientists, to announce prizes for a “stewardship” initiative.

That press release (link forthcoming) -link here  and the entire initiative- was timed to not only divert from the Gov.’s embarrassing climate denial comments quoted in today’s WNYC story, but designed to provide cover for DEP’s lack of enforcement of environmental laws in lieu of reliance on voluntary corporate measures.

[The DEP initiative hiding behind the Princeton award has nothing to do with science or the application of science, it is about deregulation and voluntary compliance, a longstanding enforcement policy controversy that the used Princeton scientists I’m fairly confident know nothing about. There is a certain degree of cynical depravity is shit like this – bordering on evil. Reminds me of what I thought was a moral low when the chemical industry used nuns to attack the Clean Water Enforcement Act.]

Gov. Christie’s outrageously revealing dismissal of climate change, was the denial of the need to use Government powers and resources to prepare and plan for climate change.

As reported by WNYC: (listen to the audio, it has more info than the news story)

Christie: No Proof Climate Change Caused Sandy

 

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie today rejected the idea that state agencies like New Jersey Transit needed to prepare for climate change ahead of Sandy.

“‘Cause I don’t think there’s been any proof thus far that Sandy was caused by climate change,” he said. …

“Well, first of all, I don’t agree with the premise of your question because I don’t think there’s been any proof thus far that Sandy was caused by climate change,” Christie said, as residents and officials from Lavallette clapped. “But I would absolutely expect that that’s exactly what WNYC would say, because you know liberal public radio always has an agenda. And so since I disagree with the premise of your question I don’t feel like I have to answer the rest of it.”

The real significance here is not the Gov.’s “denial” of climate change that other national media and political outlets have written about.

Gov. Christie  dismissed a straw man – no one claims that climate change “caused” Sandy. It made it worse.

The Gov. said: “Since I disagree with the premise of your question, I don’t feel like I have to answer the rest of it” and went on to attack WNYC. What kind of BS is that?

The Gov.’s attack on investigative journalism with a spine (see: Asking a climate change question at a Christie press conference) is a similar tactic he takes to virtually all critics (see the recent NJ Spotlight episode for a recent example of the bully demagogue in action).

The far more important and troubling point in the Gov.’s comments is that he denied any need to plan or prepare for climate change!

That confirms exactly what I have written, see:

• The Deafness Before the Storm
• Leadership matters –  How DEP Buried Reports on Coastal Storm Risks
• Why Is It So Hard For NJ Media to Call Out Gov. Christie on Climate Change?

WNYC investigative journalism exposed exactly what that meant for NJ Transit’s $100 million failure (see: prior WNYC reports:

• How New Jersey Transit Failed Sandy’s Test  and
• Critics: Christie Deep-Sixed Climate Change Prep

That turned out to be a losing gamble, and one, critics say, that reflects a pattern in Christie’s term in office. In his first year, Christie closed the Office of Climate Change and Energy which had been created and given top-level priority under Jon Corzine.

It was run by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Its mission was to ready the state  to handle more severe storms, heat and rising sea levels.

“So none of this work is getting done,” said Bill Wolfe, a 30-year-veteran of DEP and now a harsh critic.

“And if you want to get something done, the DEP has all the tools to get something done and they’ve chosen not to use those tools for political reasons, reflecting the Governor’s priorities and Governor’s policy,” Wolfe said. “And they just don’t want to own up to that.”

But, as I’ve written, the NJ Transit’s $100 million failure is the tip of a large iceberg of failure by the Christie Administration.

This failure explains the AshBritt scandal and far, far more things – and they all revolve around the Gov.’s ideologically based denial of a strong role for government and the need to plan and prepare for climate change, extreme weather,  and NJ’s many vulnerabilities. 

That’s why the WNYC story is so important – the Gov. has gone on record and his own words confirm exactly what I’ve been saying for years here.

The slogans have lost their power – the emperor has no clothes! Reporters are starting to ask tough questions.

And so the DEP spin machine goes into overdrive!

If we had a functioning press corps, I would not have to write this note this morning.

Senator Barbara Buono

In an important speech last night in Atlantic City, Senator Buono harshly criticized Governor Christie’s conservative ideology and personal ambition.

I strongly share those views and think that they should be a major focus of the campaign.

But I know that the newspapers will not frame the issues that way or even cover the content, so, although I am no political reporter or partisan advocate or pundit, here we are.

I’ll try to fill the gap in the crap that passes for journalism. Stuff like this, which not only is superficial, but curiously managed to fill half a story about Senator Buono’s speech with Gov. Christie’s quotes. I guess the “professionals” call that “balance”).

Last night in Atlantic City, Senator Barbara Buono took charge of the Democratic Party and presented a speech that outlined her vision of the campaign challenge against Governor Christie.

Buono began with allusions to FDR’s New Deal, JFK’s New Frontier, and the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts.  Buono struck these historical chords to summon what some refer to as the “democratic wing of the democratic party” (the lazy and cynical reporters call this “appealing to the base”).

But,  more significantly, Buono framed the campaign as a clash of ideology – which is something that news reporters and editors seems to not understand and virtually never report.

So here is the key excerpt of the speech –

Let’s hope that Buono continues to hammer away at exactly this set of issues (Christie’s achilles heel) and can manage to provide real life concrete illustrations of how political ideology impacts the daily lives of real people.

Buono recognized this communication and political challenge  by saying “I know we can’t do this on platitudes alone.”

This remark shows realism and maturity and provides a sharp contrast with Gov. Christie’s reliance on slogans and YouTube moment demagoguery, that mask his right wing policy agenda.

I say – keep on bringing it Barbara!

(Full speech text courtesy of BlueJersey)

Today in New Jersey a radical agenda – ruled by conservative ideology and funded by corporate interests – has those values – our values – under assault. And Governor Christie and Republicans in the Legislature are on the front lines.

While he should be thinking about what’s best in our interest here in New Jersey, behind each and every decision Chris Christie makes is the goal of pandering to right-wing conservatives or fulfilling his own national ambitions.

How else can you explain that in New Jersey – a blue state, a progressive state, a state that hasn’t sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate in four decades – teachers, police officers, and fire fighters – our heroes – are vilified?

There’s no other way to explain how working folks fighting for fair representation are portrayed as a drain on our system, how seniors are pitted against public workers and millionaires are put before the middle class.

Our working people, our children, and our seniors – my parents always taught me to stand up and fight for them.

They’re the reason I got involved in politics in the first place.

They’re the reason I embraced the Democratic Party years ago.

But for Chris Christie, they are a mere stepping stone on the road to Washington.

Martin: DEP Programs “temporarily put on hold … in order to staff  two major [Sandy] initiatives”

Last week, during the DEP budget hearing, DEP Commissioner  Martin was asked point blank about how he managed to perform a lot of new Sandy response and recovery work, with a smaller staff and lower budget, without cutbacks in other environmental programs.

“How do you do it?” incredulous legislators asked. What DEP work is not getting done?

But Martin insisted that he had maintained existing DEP programs and was able to do more with less. Martin attributed this alleged huge productivity increase  to his “transformation” initiative and various technology and streamlined permit processing reforms.

Listening to this bullshit led me to question Marin’s honesty  (see “DEP Delivers Enron Testimony on Budget”)

Well, just days after that testimony, Martin wrote the following memo to his DEP staff – which expose the lies in his testimony.

Has it now become acceptable to mislead legislators?

Here’s the smoking gun memo by Martin, laying out his plan to transfer staff (emphasis in boldface are mine).

Legislators should call him back for additional testimony on what programs will suffer from Martin’s staff transfers – how many transfers, from what programs? What will be the environmental impacts? Are staff qualified for the new work?

What legislative authority and budget allocations are being used to justify this “rebuilding” work? 

From:
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013
To: DEP Commissioner
Subject: DEP’s Role in Rebuilding New Jersey

As you all know, the number one priority of Governor Christie and this entire Administration is the recovery and rebuilding of New Jersey in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. Many of you have contributed by assisting within your current programs or in different programs that needed more help. Together we have overseen the removal of more than 8 million tons of household and vegetative debris and sand from our streets. Our waterway debris contractors are currently removing everything from pieces of buildings and household debris to boats, docks, boardwalks and trees—working seven days a week to get the job done. We have developed guidelines for the demolition of Sandy-damaged houses to ensure that towns are eligible for FEMA reimbursement. We have worked closely with towns to provide interim shore protection for damaged beaches while we continue to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create a statewide shore protection system. We have expedited our permitting processes so homes and boardwalks could be rebuilt. We have been providing expertise and working hand-in-hand with municipal leaders to help guide their towns to recovery.

Many of you are not aware of the fact that we have two additional recovery activities that are about to begin: the buyout of properties for homeowners that do not wish to rebuild, and performing federally required environmental and historic reviews so that our sister State agencies can release HUD dollars for rebuilding, small business assistance, reconstruction, assistance to blighted communities, resettlement, elevation of homes and flood risk mitigation.  These are two very important projects that are beginning in the next week, and they address some of the pain and personal challenges that have impacted our residents, businesses and vacationers.

In order to ensure we can process the 10,000-plus applications that DEP will be responsible for during the period within which the State is required to spend the $1.8 billion of HUD funding, I will transfer staff to assist Fawn McGee, who will head up the acquisition program; to Donna Mahon, who will head up the environmental assessment program; and to Scott Brubaker, who will head up the hazardous mitigation grant program.

As part of our transformation process, Deputy Commissioner Kropp and the Assistant Commissioners have had multiple discussions about how we can streamline, make more efficient or temporarily put on hold certain operations in certain programs in order to staff these two major initiatives. The Assistant Commissioners will be reaching out to those program managers and staff who will be transferred to help implement these critical programs.

I understand that every person in DEP is dedicated to the job he or she is currently performing. However, we all must focus on the families, individuals and small businesses that need our help during this second phase of New Jersey’s long-term recovery. I am proud of the work that DEP has accomplished already in our response, recovery and rebuilding efforts. We must continue to put all of our time, experience, expertise and resources to use in meeting this priority.

Thank you for your continued efforts.

Bob Martin
Commissioner

 Wild & Scenic

Delaware River “Hot Dog Man” Update

All hell seems to be breaking loose in response to press coverage of the fact that DEP is seeking a $140,000 lease (with $2 per Delaware River tuber) for the D&R Canal State Park Delaware River access lease now used by the “Hot Dog Man”:

Delaware River tubing company must pay at least $140,000 to continue operating

 

While Greg Crance might be known as the “Hot Dog Man,”this wasn’t quite the type of pickle he was looking for.

Crance, owner of Kingwood Township-based Delaware River Tubing Inc., has recently learned that in order to keep running his river tubing business of 11 years, he’ll have to pony up at least $140,000 to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to obtain exclusive commercial use of the boat launch he uses along a stretch of D&R Canal State Park.

In past years, Crance said, all that was needed to operate was a $200 special permit use.

Last year, he didn’t pay anything. This year, the DEP is seeking bids of at least $140,000.

Last summer, I learned about this dispute and viewed it as a perfect example of DEP’s failure to enforce environmental laws in order to generate revenues from lease/concessions fees under the new Christie State Parks funding policy. I wrote:

So, why has DEP not taken enforcement action for this egregious violation (which triggered a cease and desist order by the USACE, an organization not known for environmental sensitivity)?

The reason DEP has looked the other way on blatant violations is because DEP has adopted Governor Christie’s vision and pauper policy for the State parks.

Governor Christie’s  “Sustainable Parks Funding Strategy” (see also Governor Christie’ press release) seeks to maximize concession revenues in State parks and to privatize commercial revenue generating operations in State parks.

The head of DEP’s Parks and Natural Resource programs, Assistant Commissioner Rich Boornazian,  is a former real estate hack, with no environmental training or experience.

At the same time, DEP has failed to collect lease revenues from major corporate Parks land users, like oil and gas pipelines and electric power transition lines (see this from our friends at PEER:

FAIR MARKET VALUE LEASES COULD FUND JERSEY PARK SYSTEM — Shale Gas Pipeline Highlights State’s Failure to Collect Full Payments from Utilities

… Over the last several years, a series of audits by the Office of Legislative Services found major flaws in the DEP Office of Leases and Concessions, most notably its failure to charge fair market value or collect overdue lease and concession payments. In response to these audits and PEER advocacy, the Legislature mandated that DEP “conduct a re-appraisal of the rents and fees charged for all residences and other buildings and structures, and for utility easements and right-of-ways, located on State park or forest lands to ensure they reflect current fair market values and will continue to do so” (P.L. 2008, c.31).  DEP was then supposed to integrate this with its plan to fund state parks and forests, a plan due on July 1, 2009.More than two years after this statutory deadline, DEP has done neither mandated task.  Instead the Christie administration has explored a number of small revenue measures to commercialize parks, such as selling corporate naming rights for park facilities and privatizing various park operations.“As this new lease richly demonstrates, charging fair market value for utility easements from the energy industry, as the state is required to do, would be a major funding source for depleted parks and state lands budgets,” Wolfe added.  “If the Christie managers want to run the state more like a business, it should start by collecting the rents truly owed.  Doing this basic job would eliminate the need to panhandle in the parks with chintzy privatization schemes.”

(see also: DEP Parks Funding Plan Can Start By Collecting The Rent)

So, instead of collecting rents owned by their corporate friends, the Christie DEP increases user fees (e.g. new boat ramp launch fees) and promotes illegal and destructive schemes like “The Hot Dog Man”.

This is what happens under DEP Commissioner Martin’s vision of DEP promoting economic development and revenue producing private concessions in state parks.

Looks like my initial take was right on point – DEP is seeking to expand revenue from the operation, and that desire for revenue sure seems to be over-riding the environmental concerns with this operation. (Yes, I read the DEP RFP and noted that it does require compliance with DEP permits, something that did not and does not now exist – there are no DEP stream encroachment or other permits issued to this project, as far as I know).

So, let me lay out my larger take here:

I am not opposed to DEP levying lease/concession and access fees on a commercial operation in a State Park, like the Hot Dog Man operation.

And I do not think that $140,000 is too much to pay for that lease or that $2 per tuber who use that commercial operation is too much to pay.

What I see as the problems here are:

1) The Christie privatization and State lands/Parks fee policy encourages commercial operations in State Parks. This is not right. Parks should not rely on commercial lease and concession fees – or even entrance or user fees – to survive.

Parks are a public obligation that should be funded by the General Fund and free to all users.

Commercial operations are incompatible – in almost all locations – with public Parks and many state lands.

In places where low impact commercial operations are compatible with the Park mission, functions, and environmental setting, then they should pay the full costs their operations impose on the public sector (not just State costs, but local as well) and Parks operations, plus an above market rate premium from the profits of the operation. This is only fair, because the public park/state land itself and its location are the primary creator of the commercial viability of the operation.

2) The Christie policy subsidizes uses of public lands that are environmentally destructive and totally inappropriate and incompatible with the integrity of public lands, like oil & gas pipeline and electric transmission lines.

These uses should be banned (new uses) or existing severely restricted as an option of last resort – while paying huge fees not only for environmental destruction and mitigation, but a significant percentage of the profits derived from the use. This approach will discourage the siting and use of public lands for these kind of inappropriate uses, instead of encouraging it.

3) If General Fund support and huge fees were collected from highly profitable existing commercial operations – like oil, gas, and electric transmission – were dedicated to parks and public lands, then there would be no need to collect fees from park users, river tubers, or Kayak and boat access.

4) DEP needs to strictly enforce all environmental laws on state lands – that is not happening right now.

5) The Delaware River is a Congressionally designated Wild & Scenic River (from Trenton north). This designation and the management plan apply to the entire river corridor, including not just the river and water quality, but scenic, historic transportation, cultural, natural resources, and recreational attributes and issues.

I have not reviewed the management plan in any depth, but my initial impression is that while I support public access and low impact recreational uses of the river, a commercial operation of the scale and type of Hot Dog Man is not compatible with a Wild & Scenic designation.

And I wish they would ban jet ski’s and all motorized boats on the river.

End of sermon.

[Update 5/15/13: it’s no longer “zero” media – Tom Johnson at NJ Spotlight wrote a good story:  Bill Would Enforce Environmental Justice, Keep Polluters out of Poor Urban Areas

I testified in support of the bill and promised to provide the Committee relevant documents to rebut misleading and inaccurate testimony by Hal Bozarth from the Chemsistry Council. I will write on that later today.  end update]

Of course I am a longtime supporter of stronger gun safety laws and proponent of GLBT equality and civil rights.

Still, this post is very likely to piss off my friends in those communities and be perceived as resentment of the fact that environmental issues are not on anyone’s radar, but let me be blunt: the current dominant focus by Democrats on guns and gays, while the right thing to do and in some ways politically effective in challenging Gov. Christie, is missing huge opportunities, and raising issues of political strategy, focus, timing, and coordination.

Jobs, living wages, global warming, urban neglect, and Governor Christie’s attacks on public education, the middle class, protections of the environment and public health, and affordable housing should be the central issues focus of Gubernatorial Candidate Senator Barbara Buono’s campaign and the policy agenda of Democrats who control the Legislature.

Governor Christie’s record is terrible on these bread and butter issues that resonate with NJ voters – and he is hugely vulnerable on ALL of them.

I may be missing things, but from my perspective, those issues need to get more focused and substantive attention.

Democrats need to get much, much better, and not just on coordinating message, but on the substance of policy, effective criticism of the Christie Administration – particularly the timing of events.

Let me give just one example of what was and what could have been.

Yesterday, Assemblywoman Spencer, Chair of the Assembly Environment Committee, posted extremely important and long overdue “environmental justice” legislation (see A3836).

For the first time, the bill would put teeth in the empty rhetoric that Governors and DEP have been allowed to get away with for years.

Despite years of studies, activism, and litigation –  including the fact DEP themselves, almost  4 years ago, issued a Report that found statistically significant correlations between race and poverty and 9 indicators of pollution and public health health (see:  DEP Discovers Discrimination – Dumps Environmental Justice Issue in Christie’s Lap), in New Jersey, EJ issues have been ignored in the DEP regulatory arena and little progress made.

The EJ issue is not only morally compelling, but passage of the Spencer EJ bill could have concrete and positive impacts on the daily lives of thousands of predominantly poor and minority residents, who bear disproportionate health burdens from pollution.

Powerful testimony was offered by longtime urban EJ community activists and a religious leader – they have been ignored by Governor Christie and made little progress on their issues before the DEP.

This was their moment!

It could have and should have been leveraged and magnified – and used to contrast progressive Democratic values with the ideological and pro-corporate Christie agenda.

Imagine the response if former EPA Administrator Jackson – who has won awards for her leadership on environmental justice – and Corey Booker – a nationally prominent black urban leader – along with a couple of hundred activists, cameras rolling and press in tow, held a State House press conference prior to Spencer’s hearing and then later testified in support of her bill!

Instead, Senate Dems focused on a gun bill and Buono and Booker did an gun safety event at a Newark Baptist Church, which got great press – all while Chairwoman Spencer – who is from Newark – had zero media coverage of her EJ bill, which didn’t even have the votes to leave a democratically controlled committee.

So, the EJ bill was a blown opportunity. It didn’t have to be that way. Let’s hope Spencer gets more support next time the bill gets heard in her Committee.

And that’s not the only recent example of political malpractice I could cite.

We just passed 400 ppm, a milestone that could been used as a millstone around Christie’s neck, given his climate change policy and clean energy fund diversions. Instead, we’ve got crickets from Dems on the climate change issue.

Dems can and must do better.