GWB Scandal Frees Pinelands Commissioners to Vote Their Conscience

Gov. Christie Crippled By Scandal – Won’t Be Throwing His Weight Around Anytime Soon

No Need for Commissioners to Walk The Plank

[UPDATE: Kirk Moore at APP writes the story: Critics link bridge scandal to Pinelands gas pipe vote – end update]

In a killer story today, Michael Powell of the NY Times connected the dots between Gov. Christie’s exploding George Washington Bridge scandal and the Pinelands pipeline.

The Times’ story closely follows what we wrote back on December 15, but provides interesting  new facts on exactly what happened.

Here’s the NY Times story:

Fighting a Pipeline, but Feeling and Fearing Christie’s Influence

… […]

As it happens, those who dust for the governor’s fingerprints have found another hardball example in southern New Jersey. The South Jersey Gas Company wants to thread a 22-mile-long pipeline through the heart of the Pinelands, a 1.1-million-acre protected expanse of scrub pines, gnarly oaks and yellow-brown river deltas.

[…]

On the commission itself, Edward Lloyd, an environmental law professor at Columbia University, loomed as a formidable roadblock. Mr. Lloyd, 65, had not taken a position but he had asked tough penetrating questions.

On Dec. 6, a deputy attorney general called Mr. Lloyd. We have a letter, the deputy told him, from the nonprofit Eastern Environmental Law Center asking the Pinelands Commission to hold another public meeting on this proposal. You are president of this center’s board of directors, and we think this is a conflict of interest. …

The deputy attorney general told Mr. Lloyd that he could appeal to the Pinelands Commission’s ethics lawyer. Mr. Lloyd was working on that appeal when his phone rang. It was the ethics officer.

“She said, ‘Don’t shoot the messenger, but on orders of the governor’s office, I went to the State Ethics Commission and they have ordered you to recuse yourself.’ ”

Mr. Lloyd was taken aback. “I thought to myself, ‘The governor’s office?’ That’s remarkable.”

And here’s where the NY Times’ reporting of the inside story gets interesting, with the Attorney General’s Office and the Pinelands Commission ethics officer Stacy Roth not telling the true story.

It turns out that the State Ethics Commission did NOT issue the Recusal Order:

From here, the case grows murkier still. On Wednesday I called the attorney general’s office, and a spokesman, Leland Moore, sent an email reply. We advised Mr. Lloyd to recuse himself, he noted, and recommended that he consult with the State Ethics Commission.

The Ethics Commission, Mr. Moore noted, “apparently made the same determination.”

I called the Ethics Commission, and its executive director said this was not true. “We haven’t made such a determination,” said Peter Tober, the executive director. “It came from the attorney general or the Pinelands ethics officer.”

So, there it is – more lies from the Christie Administration and their hacks at the AG’s Office and Pinelands Commission.

The upshot of all this, is that Gov. Christie is greatly weakened politically, and the media spotlight will make it very, very difficult for him to conduct his business as usual – intimidating people and corrupting government institutions to implement his political agenda.

The media will be looking for examples of Christie’s abuse.

In that context, the Gov. will simply not be able to throw his weight around and intimidate, threaten and retaliate against people who disagree with the Gov. or fail to follow his orders..

The significance of this development is that it has been clear for a long time the the Gov. was strongly backing the Pines pipeline project.

As such, there have been rumors for months that the Gov. Office was threatening Pinelands Commissioners and staff to get this pipeline project done.

These threats included replacement of Commissioners who defied him to oppose the project (see: Will Pinelands Commissioners Walk The Plank and Kill Christie’s $500 Million Gas Pipeline and Power Plant Project?)

But now that the media is watching, the Gov. will not be able to act with impunity and will not be able to get away with any more intimidation and coercion.

The Pinelands Commissioners are free to vote their conscience.

Things may get very interesting at tomorrow’s vote.