What Would Richard Sullivan Have Done?

Some ironies are too cruel to bear in silence

Let me preface and ground a post that is sure to be denounced as a deeply insensitive and disrespectful attack, in an intellectual tradition.

The philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr wrote a classic text “The Irony of American History” in 1952. The work took a painfully honest look at the reality of what he called “the  ironic element in the American situation”.

These ironic contrasts and contradictions must be analyzed with more care presently. Our immediate prefatory concern must be the double character of our ironic experience. Contemporary history not merely offers ironic refutation of some of our early hopes and present illusions about ourselves; but the experience which furnishes the refutation is occasioned by conflict with a foe who has transmuted ideals and hopes, which we most deeply cherish, into cruel realities which we most fervently abhor.

Richard Sullivan, the first Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner and longtime Pinelands Commission Chairman died last week. He was 86.

He led a long and productive career in environmental management, and served as the leader and model for an entire generation of NJ’s environmental managers.

The timing of his death should have prompted reflection on policy and shown a bright spotlight on the health of two institutions his spent his life building, the DEP and the Pinelands Commission.

It didn’t. Just the opposite.

The silence was deafening. The reflection nowhere to be found. The cowardice rank. The delusions palpable. The cynicism dripping.

There was not even an attempt to link Sullivan’s legacy of accomplishment in building institutions and public policies to the current state of affairs in Chris Christie’s NJ.

It was as if the long intimidating shadow of Christie could squelch discussion of a man’s legacy and its relevance to current policy controversies.

Instead, we got the “end of an era” meme – thank Mike for that.

(and you’all be sure to be civil in tone and keep  your  voice down, as the Governor, his minions, and the corporations dismantle everything the man stood for).

That was the thrust of this eloquent tribute from Mike Catania, which at times read more like a lecture on style and the need to speak in a civil tone than on content of Sullivan’s legacy of building strong institutions and policy (see:  THE PASSING OF RICHARD SULLIVAN: THE END OF AN ERA IN THE GARDEN STATE

Aside from the “end of an era” (obviously a disparaging allusion and surrender to notions of the end of big government, regulations, and planning and an acceptance of corporate dominance), here’s how Catania considers Sullivan’s legacy with respect to the Christie regime, closing his essay with this wish:

I shall miss Richard dearly, and I can only hope that the civility, respect, and reliance on sound science that he practiced so fervently will not pass away with him.

Civility, respect, reliance on science – features of character and style – not the substance of a legacy of laws, regulations, institutions, plans, policies, enforcement, and budgets – all of which are contradicted by our current Governor Christie.

And in another painful moment, before the last Pinelands Commission meeting, we heard a personal eulogy from newly installed Commissioner Avery (on recently deceased Commissioner Haas), followed by very brief personal remarks by Commissioner Ashmum regarding her friendship with Sullivan, and then paid along  moment of silence to Sullivan before the Pinelands Commission meeting last friday – the meeting where the Commision sat back in silence as the AG’s Office and State Ethics Commision attacked one of their most prominent members.

The Commission meets in a lovely building named after Sullivan. Is that a contradiction or an irony?

Plumbing the depths of cynicism and contradiction, DEP issued a timely and opportunistic press release, touting the “Christie Administration’s remembrance “– all while the Christie/Martin Team dismantle DEP and gas the pines.

So, lets cut to the chase and ask: What would Richard Sullivan have done in the height of his powers?

Would he have allowed a gas pipeline MOA and an $8 million bribe to sully the integrity of the CMP he wrote and compromise the independence of the Pinelands Commission he helped build?

Would he sit back silently as the former lobbyist for the NJ Builders Association – installed by Governor Christie as the Commisison’s Executive Director – manipulated, misled, and lied to the public and Commissioners in her loyalty to the Gov. in promoting a gas pipeline through the pines in violation of the CMP forest protection standards?

Would he have back sat in silence as hacks from Trenton targeted a fellow Commssioner on trumped up ethics charges?

Would he have allowed the staff and Commissioners to ignore climate change and fracking, perhaps our two most pressing environmental issues, in the course of review of a regional fossil fuel infrastructure project?

Would he have let DEP hacks waltz into a public hearing on the draft MOA – at the 12th hour – to a huge controversy they helped create, and then let them leave without responding to questions from Commissioners and the public regarding their testimony in support of the project?

Sullivan was a gentleman, not a puppet – so, I don’t think so.

Which brings me to two closing points as I wrestle with the absurd contradictions we now face at the Commission:

Kate Millsaps of the Sierra Club made an excellent point during her testimony on Friday opposing the pipeline.

Millsaps told the Commisison a stunning and painful truth:

that the federal Natural Gas Act, a weak federal law written by and for the gas industry, has stricter environmental impact statement and review requirements for interstate gas pipelines than the Pinelands Commission does!!

How could the energy industry dominated FERC conduct more aggressive environmental impact reviews than a regional State land preservation oriented  institution like the Pinelands Commission? How is that possible?

That is similar to a point I previously made, where I criticized the absurdity of the Commission’s review process and exposed the fact that the South Jersey Gas Co. has a greater concern  for climate change and greenhouse gas emissions from their pipelines than the Pinelands Commission does.

South Jersey Gas Co. voluntarily reports to investors current greenhouse gas emissions:

The US Environmental Protection Agency finalized a Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule, which required LDCs like South Jersey Gas to put in place monitoring and recordkeeping systems that are establishing the baselines for reporting that went into effect in 2010.

SJI management understands that there are risks and opportunities associated with this challenge. Our responsibility to customers and shareholders is to prepare for a carbon-constrained economy in the future. Our company has taken action to better understand the sources and magnitude of GHG emissions for our overall enterprise, including an enterprise-wide GHG inventory completed in 2010. Using this information, we are regularly evaluating options to reduce GHG emissions within our operations and continue developing options for our customers to reduce their emissions as well. We are committed to remaining informed about GHG policy developments and to developing strategies that allow us to capitalize on opportunities stemming from climate change initiatives.

So, a question for our current Commissioners at the Pinelands and DEP: what would Richard Sullivan have done about all that?