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The Oil Baron Of The Pine Barrens.....
I'm not even going to make a comment on this. Just read it and come to your own conclusions. Some days I wonder why I even get out of bed.
Oil Baron of the Pine Barrens
Chris Christie campaigned for governor as a moderate who backed clean energy. After a meeting with David Koch, that changed
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has become closer to traditional energy interests as his national profile has grown.
By Alan Neuhauser
March 12, 2015 | 12:01 a.m. EDT
There’s an old joke in New Jersey: When the Texas oil fields go dry, the next great source of crude will come not from the Gulf or the Arctic but from Arthur Kill, the historically polluted shipping channel separating the Garden State and Staten Island, New York.
But a still better source might lie 50 miles down the New Jersey Turnpike, where political analysts say oil and gas has seeped into the statehouse, fueling the national ambitions of a governor who has carefully built an unusually close and personal relationship with the energy sector – an apparent evolution that's allegedly come at the expense of local voters and public safety.
"Chris Christie has focused his thinking on a national level, so New Jersey for so many years has become less important," says Brigid Callahan Harrison, president of the New Jersey Political Science Association.
That dynamic came into stark relief last month, Harrison and others say, when the GOP governor quietly agreed to settle a decadelong $8.9 billion legal battle with Exxon Mobil for just $225 million.
Legal experts say victory for the state was virtually assured – Exxon Mobil was already liable for contaminating at least 1,500 acres of sensitive wetlands along Arthur Kill and Newark Bay. All that remained was assessing how much the company owed for the restoration and loss of use of the land. Yet just weeks before an expected decision, reports say, Christie's chief counsel intervened, overstepping career attorneys who had worked the case for years to institute the settlement with Exxon.
Chris Christie campaigned for governor as a moderate who backed clean energy. After a meeting with David Koch, that changed
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has become closer to traditional energy interests as his national profile has grown.
By Alan Neuhauser
March 12, 2015 | 12:01 a.m. EDT
There’s an old joke in New Jersey: When the Texas oil fields go dry, the next great source of crude will come not from the Gulf or the Arctic but from Arthur Kill, the historically polluted shipping channel separating the Garden State and Staten Island, New York.
But a still better source might lie 50 miles down the New Jersey Turnpike, where political analysts say oil and gas has seeped into the statehouse, fueling the national ambitions of a governor who has carefully built an unusually close and personal relationship with the energy sector – an apparent evolution that's allegedly come at the expense of local voters and public safety.
"Chris Christie has focused his thinking on a national level, so New Jersey for so many years has become less important," says Brigid Callahan Harrison, president of the New Jersey Political Science Association.
That dynamic came into stark relief last month, Harrison and others say, when the GOP governor quietly agreed to settle a decadelong $8.9 billion legal battle with Exxon Mobil for just $225 million.
Legal experts say victory for the state was virtually assured – Exxon Mobil was already liable for contaminating at least 1,500 acres of sensitive wetlands along Arthur Kill and Newark Bay. All that remained was assessing how much the company owed for the restoration and loss of use of the land. Yet just weeks before an expected decision, reports say, Christie's chief counsel intervened, overstepping career attorneys who had worked the case for years to institute the settlement with Exxon.
Read it here: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/03/12/oil-baron-of-the-pine-barrens-chris-christie-embraces-big-oil
its long but its worth your time.
