Corporate Polluters Killed Legislation To Protect First Responders & Communities
Loopholes In NJ Law Creates Huge Chemical Risks To Firemen
An Empty Stage for an Empty Suit
(2/5/13 Gov. Christie PR stunt)
Gov. Murphy’s disgusting PR stunt yesterday – dutifully broadcast by NJ Spotlight TeeVee – reminded me of a prior NJ Gov.’s similar stunt.
And it exposed similar manipulation and masking of huge policy failures.
The photo above is from Gov. Christie’s 2013 press conference in Union Beach – a community that was devastated by Superstorm Sandy – in which he denied climate change and said it was an “esoteric” issue that the people of NJ “didn’t give a damn about” (as I wrote at the time):
In a jaw dropping display of climate change denial, NJ Governor Christie went off on a rant at a press conference in Union Beach yesterday, when asked about Sandy and climate change (see: Sandy recovery, not climate, on Governor Christie’s radar (the Bergen Record reported):
“The failure to acknowledge a link between climate change and Sandy will have “direct, concrete consequences,” said Bill Wolfe, an environmental blogger.
An executive order signed by President Obama in December that established the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force calls for an understanding of the future risks posed by extreme weather events, Wolfe said….
Wolfe attended Christie’s event Tuesday and tried to ask the governor a follow-up question on that specific issue but was shot down by the governor, who said, “I’m not answering your question because you’re not in the press.”
Gov. Christie was using first responders to self promote and mask his massive failure to respond to the climate emergency. And he did so in a community that was devastated by a storm that was intensified by the climate change he denied. That takes a special kind of intellectual and political corruption.
Yesterday, Gov. Murphy did the same thing.
He used first responders to self promote (using not his own budget, which has a record $10 billion surplus, but federal money, no less!). And he used the firefighters as a prop, despite his failed Executive Order and failure to enact legislation to protect firefighters from the chemical safety risks exposed by the Passaic City chemical fire.
NJ Spotlight reported yesterday:
Firefighters confront not just heat and flames when they rush in to battle a blazing building. Often these fires emit choking smoke and particulate matter laced with cancer-causing contaminants. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancer is the leading cause of death among firefighters.
Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday announced $10 million in grants to help New Jersey departments buy expensive protective equipment. Murphy said it would be “sophisticated, 21st century gear — helmets, PPE, stuff that detoxes uniforms when they’re washed and after an event, takes the carcinogens out, so really important … That’s a big deal because it’s those harmful toxins that are tragically giving firefighters disproportionate rates of cancer.” The money comes from federal American Rescue Plan funds.
Gov. Murphy is using federal funding to change the subject.
Gov. Murphy and the media seem to have forgotten all about the major potential disaster of the Passaic City chemical fire.
That fire exposed massive loopholes in NJ’s “Right to Know” chemical safety law, designed to provide first responders and communities with critical information about the risks from hazardous chemicals.
The people of the city and surrounding communities dodged a deadly bullet, in what could have been “one of the worst disasters in the Country”: (Bergen Record)
I wrote about how loopholes in current laws and DEP regulations put emergency responders and the entire community at risk:
Gov. Murphy issued a toothless Executive Order #284 in response to that near disaster. We wrote to explain the failures of and mock that Order, see:
The Governor has failed to stand up to the chemical industry who is blocking the legislation to close loopholes exposed by that fire, see, see S2739::
So, at a fundamental level, Gov. Murphy is playing the same bankrupt political games that Gov. Christie played.
And as I said about Gov. Christie’s climate denial, Gov. Murphy’s failure will have “direct, concrete consequences,”. Let’s hope it doesn’t look like THIS AGAIN:
