comcom|
|
This is one of a series. We welcome editorial content and non-commercial news from our readers, and will create a page like this each time we receive input. Feel free to offer a new news or editorial item, or to append your own comments to an existing editorial. |
|
Excuse the bathroom language -- I use it rarely. But considering connotation, there is no good synonym :-)
In my state of New Jersey, fines against business by the DEP provide more than half of the DEP's budget. A gubernatorial candidate, Chris Christie -- a former "corruption buster" federal prosecutor -- is trying to end this corruption and get those fines redirected into the general fund, and get the DEP properly funded in lieu of this corrupt scheme that leads to inspectors plumping the department's coffers by trying to trip up New Jersey businesses so they can extract fines for "gotcha!" trivialities.
So a spokesperson for the NJ Sierra Club goes on the radio today to defend this corruption, and says that any reports that claim that this is harming New Jersey business are wrong, and in fact, quote, "Nothing could be further from the truth."
Listen, I'm a longtime member of the Sierra Club (and Audubon, and Pinelands Preservation, and other environmental organizations). I'm radically in favor of strong environmental protections. But that doesn't give the Sierra Club license to outright lie or simply make stuff up! The fact is that numerous metal finishing facilities decided to close in NJ precisely because countless spot inspections designed to collect large fines for an uncrossed "T" or undotted "i" eventually ate out their spirit. I've known the owners of several of these now closed-down facilities for decades, and some are now surviving by installing plating lines in China and Mexico, passing on their lifetime of precious knowledge to America's off-shore competitors.
Let me lay it out very clearly: The Sierra Club is full of shit.
