TAKE ACTION

January 6, 2012

Take Action to Protect Worker and Public Health and the Environment

Please act today to urge New Jersey legislative leaders to post legislation (SCR239/ACR206) for a vote to override Governor Christie's proposed rule that would allow the NJ Department of Environmental Protection to waive its own regulations. If this rule is not blocked, it will weaken decades of safeguards that protect public health, worker safety, and environmental protection.

This Monday, January 9, 2012, is the last voting day of this legislative session and likely our last chance to block this terrible deregulation rule, short of litigation.

CALL TODAY!
Call Senate President Steve Sweeney (856) 251-9801 and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (973) 395-1166 and urge them to post SCR239/ACR206 this Monday, January 9, to allow a vote by the full Senate and Assembly.

BACKGROUND

Governor Christie's Executive Order #2 directed every state agency to develop rules to waive their own rules. Last year the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued the first proposed rule waiver.

The Star-Ledger calls DEP's proposal "the most dangerous, overreaching and potentially corrupting document in Trenton. It is the nuke that would give the Christie administration near-unlimited power to set aside decades of hard-won environmental protections for ... any reason it wants."

Under this proposal, for example, corporations that use highly hazardous chemicals could decide that they do not have to evaluate safer alternative chemicals or processes, thus endangering both their workers and surrounding communities.

WEC and the seventy labor and environment organizations we represent urged DEP to withdraw the proposed rule (N.J.A.C. 7:1B) because:

1) In addition to endangering the environment, it would endanger New Jersey workers. New Jersey regulations help create safer working conditions for employees in hazardous industries across the state. Every day these regulations, such as those issued under the Worker and Community Right to Know Act, the Toxic Catastrophe Prevention Act, and the Spill Act, protect the lives and well-being of workers in our state's chemical plants, oil refineries, and many other industries that use hazardous substances. This rule would endanger their safety.

2) The proposed rule would hurt New Jersey's small businesses. The proposed rule would make it harder for small business to compete with big corporations. In order to apply for a waiver, a prospective applicant would have to spend enormous fees to attorneys and experts. Only large corporations could afford such expenses.

3) The proposed rule contradicts the Executive Order because it fosters unpredictability. Governor Christie's Executive Order #2 calls for "predictability" in the regulatory process. The proposed waiver rule would allow regulations to be enforced on some but not on others. Because waivers are granted or not based on a totality of factors, there is no basis by which anyone can predict who will obtain a waiver or who would be denied one.

4) The proposed rule violates the separation of powers because DEP would be acting beyond the scope of its granted authority from the legislature. When the legislature wants an agency to grant waivers, it provides for that power in the agency's enabling statute. In this case, DEP would grant wavers without clear authority to do so from the legislature. It thus violates the separation of powers and should be abandoned.

If DEP desires more flexibility to address difficult issues, they should propose specific regulatory changes for each program within the framework of legislative intent.

The statement to the concurrent resolution reads:

"This concurrent resolution embodies the finding of the Legislature that the rules and regulations to establish a procedure for the waiver of department rules proposed by the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for public comment in the New Jersey Register on March 7, 2011 are not consistent with the intent of the Legislature. The DEP does not have the statutory authority to promulgate one set of rules and regulations in order to waive other rules and regulations previously adopted pursuant to the "Administrative Procedure Act," and further, the DEP does not possess the statutory authority to establish a procedure for the waiver of department rules adopted pursuant to specific statutes. The Commissioner of Environmental Protection will have 30 days from the date of transmittal of this resolution to amend or withdraw the proposed rules and regulations, or the Legislature may, by passage of another concurrent resolution, exercise its authority under the Constitution to invalidate the rules and regulations in whole or in part."

Thanks to Senators Buono and Gordon and Assemblypersons Barnes, McKeon, and Gusciora for sponsoring this resolution. Go to http://www.njleg.state.nj.us to read the resolution text and its legislative history.

There is no indication that DEP plans to withdraw this rule unless they are forced to by legislation, litigation, or other means. Moreover, other agencies, such as the Division of Consumer Affairs in the Department of Law and Public Safety, are proposing their own waiver rules that place corporate interests before the public good.

Tell Congress to Stand Up for Good Jobs and Clean Air at America's Ports.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), along with more than 50 influential leaders in Congress who represent both coastal and land-locked districts, has introduced the Clean Ports Act of 2010 new legislation that will empower America's ports to stop the powerful shipping and trucking industries from exploiting old laws and passing the cost of clean air onto taxpayers and low-income truck drivers.

TAKE ACTION

Sign the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports petition asking Congress to carry federal legislation that supports clean air and good jobs!

Protect the Clean Energy Fund

Governor Christie wants to raid New Jersey's Clean Energy Fund to balance the 2010 and 2011 budgets. This fund would help create or sustain approximately 5,000 green jobs.

TAKE ACTION

1. Call Governor Christie at (609) 292-6000 and urge him not to raid New Jersey's Clean Energy Fund.

2. Contact your legislators and urge them to protect the fund.

For Environmental Protection, Support Employee Free Choice Act

Strong labor unions are essential for protecting our environment and our children's future.

TAKE ACTION

Ten of thirteen members of New Jersey's Congressional Delegation co-sponsored the Employee Free Choice Act.
Find out if your Representative support it.

Archived Actions

Keep the Momentum Going in the House for Chemical Security

Critical chemical security legislation was just voted out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee without weakening amendments! Now the legilsation is on its way to the full House for a vote and we need your support once again.

Tell Your Legislators: Don't Outsource Site Remediation

New Jersey has 20,000 toxic sites that need clean up, yet the Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) site remediation program is broken.