Murphy DEP Official Defends Climate Adaptation Regulations As A Real Estate “Value Proposition”

Words Matter And Reveal Ideology

Neoliberalism On Steroids

Who talks like this? Sounds like a used car salesman: (NJ Spotlight):

“There’s nothing about this proposal that diminishes our ability to have robust economic development; quite the contrary,” he said. “Folks in the development community can say they have a value proposition to their clients. They can say, ‘We’ve looked at the risks in the long term, and you can feel confident buying a new home from us.’”

And what is a “risk-profit paradigm”? Is that when a developer maximizes his profits while the homeowners, business and governments get wiped out in a flood? When developers privatize the profits and socialize the risks and costs?:

There are some, because they are concerned with a shorter risk-profit paradigm, might think that any additional requirement is just another step too much,” he said. “But our job is to protect everyone and our natural resources, and so perpetuating an environment in which we go for the lower bar effectively displaces future risk on someone else.”

This is pretentious pseudo-intellectual gibberish. It is incoherent.

Worse, it exposes Mr. Latourette’s ideological fealty to a private property, investment, and market based paradigm that has no place in government.

Government does not base regulatory policy on private investment and real estate “value proposition” paradigms.

It bases regulations on science, law and the public interest.

This reminds me of another recent rhetorical embarrassment by Mr. LaTourette, see:

• In Walking Back Absurd Climate Remarks, Murphy DEP Goes From The Frying Pan To The Fire

So, let’s rehash what DEP Deputy Commissioner said just a few months ago, back in October: (NJ Spotlight)

“We’re not at a point, nor do we think it’s our role, to tell people: ‘Don’t build here, you shouldn’t build there, you can’t do that,’” LaTourette said. …

He said the DEP wants to avoid being the “big, bad government” that imposes heavy-handed regulations.

Mr. LaTourette seems to have abandoned the “big bad government” and “heavy handed regulations” rhetoric, but not the Neoliberal market fundamentalist ideology behind that rhetoric.

And think: this is from the man next in line to become DEP Commissioner.

[End Note – Mr. LaTourette seems to do much better when the PR flacks put words in his mouth:

In his opening remarks at the virtual awards ceremony, DEP Deputy Commissioner Shawn LaTourette also noted that the 2020 “honorees exemplify the values that motivate us here at the Department of Environmental Protection and across the Murphy Administration: an abiding commitment to science and service, and a drive to confront our greatest challenges, and out of them create new opportunities that will help us build a stronger, fairer New Jersey.”

LaTourette needs to retire to Joe Biden’s basement.  ~~~ end]