Chris Christie and Pollution

Hello and welcome to my blog.

Today's post is concerning how the New Jersey's new governor Chris Christie will handle the issues of pollution now that he has been elected governor. According to cleanwateraction.org, this is Governor Christie's stance on the issue (Note: These are direct quotes from the website):

• Replenishing the state's bankrupt open space program;
• Requiring the state's nuclear power plants to stop their destruction in and around the Barnegat Bay and the Delaware River;
• Issuing an order to reduce killer diesel soot pollution;

He is also for other issues such as "stricter oversight of Corzine's program that gives polluters control of cleaning up toxic sites" and a more "aggressive implementation of the Global Warming Response Act and Energy Master Plan" both of which involve lowering greenhouse gas emissions and finding clean renewable sources of energy.

We can only hope that Governor Christie follows through with his plans to clean up the Garden State.

Past NJ Governors and Pollution Part 2: Jon Corzine

Hello and welcome to my blog.

Today I would like to talk about how former governor Jon Corzine dealt with pollution in New Jersey.

Corzine signed a letter to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) asking for them to do a better job cleaning up mercury. It turns out that the Clean Air Act allows less pollution than the EPA's plan. Also he voted yes for stricter oil and gas smokestacks in mercury regulations. He also signed another letter to remove PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyl) from the Hudson River by dredging 200 miles of the river.

Jon Corzine also supported the Clean Air Act and wants the EPA to be well funded enough to deal with environmental issues. He also vowed to work with four other governors to clean up the Atlantic coastline. In addition he is looking into developing offshore wind farms as a source of renewable energy.

Unfortunately Corzine did not follow through with many of his plans to help clean up New Jersey. Let's hope that the next governor follows through with his plans.

Sources:
nj.com
OnTheIssues.org

Past NJ Governors and Pollution Part 1: Jim McGreevy

Hello and welcome to my blog.

Today I would like to talk about how past New Jersey governors have handled the issue of pollution. First up is our former Governor Jim McGreevy. After reading what was posted on OnTheIssues.org (seen here) it seems that former Governor McGreevy did quite a bit to clean up the state of New Jersey.

First off he worked towards cleaning up the Sewaren waterfront and gave the area a new boat launch, a park, trees, a pedestrian walkway among other things. He also created a new park on the Sewaren Peninsula. Next he redeveloped a landfill and made it into a Community Center for the local community.

In addition he sponsored the NJ Pollution Prevention Act which worked by reducing toxic emmissions at the source. As a result of this the production of toxic pollutants has been cut in half.

First post and the Purpose of this Blog

Hello and welcome to my blog.

The purpose of this blog is to serve as the Civic Engagement Project for my IMM-140 class called Introduction to Professional Writing. My Civic Engagement Project will be how past governors and the present governor of New Jersey Chris Christie will handle the pollution issue in New Jersey. I will post various links and my opinions on reports of what governors have done to decrease pollution in New Jersey. In my opinion, the Garden State should be the greenest state in the entire United States, not a place for pollution of all kinds.

I thought that I should start off talking about air pollution in New Jersey. These emissions are caused by various factories around the state and of course from automobile exhaust. Upon reading the Clean Air Report for 2003 (seen here) I realized how bad the air pollution problem is here. This report gives statistics to air pollution related incidents ranging from the simple to the severe. These include missed work days, Chronic Bronchitis and even death in some adults and even in children. Please read the Clean Air Report that I linked earlier for more information regarding this topic.

Pollution does not only affects the air, it affects our waterways as well. Toxic substances that leak into our water harms the plants and animals that use this water to survive. Consumption of this toxic water can lead to a variety of diseases in both people and animals.