“Onerous Regulations” Had Nothing to Do with This Plant Closure

Just day’s before the release of Governor Christie’s Regulatory Czar’s “Red Tape Review Group” Report, the Star Ledger reports today that a GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical plant in Clifton will close and destroy 270 good jobs.

Contrary to the Christie Administration’s simplistic and false rhetoric about “onerous regulations” as the cause of the economic collapse, the company had received its local land use approvals (and probably DEP permits) for the expansion.

“We were rather caught by surprise,” Clifton City Manager Al Greco said of the announcement by London-based GlaxoSmithKline. “They just spent a year going through the planning board to get some expansions approved.”

Glaxo said it will be transfer production of its Aquafresh and Sensodyne brands to upstate New York over the next three years. A spokeswoman said the move was based on “constraints” at the 60-year-old New Jersey plant.

Greco said he suspects Glaxo plans to use more automation in its production process to battle Asian competitors.

“I’m sure they are consolidating,” he said. “They’re competing against the Chinese market.”

These real causes of NJ job losses completely destroy the premise of the Christie Administration’s “Red Tape Review Group” , which is focused exclusively on providing regulatory relief and blaming “onerous regulations“, the DEP, and a “burdensome regulatory framework” for the economic recession and job loss.

But it is clear that economic factors (e.g. competition w/China and globalization) not environmental regulations are the root causes .

But how can NJ workers compete with China’s wages and residents live with China’s lax environmental standards?

Globalization is a race to the bottom for cheap labor and a devastated environment. US trade and investment policies have destroyed the US manufacturing sector, not environmental protections which drive innovation and productivity and create jobs.

At the State level, green jobs is the best path forward for job creation and environmental sustainability – but Christie is going in the opposite direction in slashing renewable energy funds and shredding programs to implement DEP’s Green House Gas Reduction plan.