Four of New Jersey's former governors - two Republicans and two Democrats - are doing battle with a common foe: the havoc Donald Trump is threatening to wreak on New Jersey.
They guided New Jersey through very different eras, using vastly different approaches and philosophies. But now four of our former governors - two Republicans and two Democrats - are doing battle with a common foe: the havoc Donald Trump is threatening to wreak on New Jersey.
When they consider the 31 percent cut to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the president has written into his proposed budget, as well as his precipitous efforts to roll back his predecessor's initiatives to combat climate change, the quartet speaks with one voice.
"You are doing away with enforcement, with scientific research, which tells you what is important for human health," said Christie Todd Whitman, who after serving as Garden State's governor from 1994 to 2001 went on to be the EPA commissioner under George W. Bush.
Whitman has joined forces with Brendan Byrne (governor from 1974 to 1982), Thomas Kean (1982 to 1990) and James Florio (1990 to 1994) to urge the state's congressional delegation to stand firm against the proposed EPA cuts and layoffs.
The combined talents and accomplishments the four bring to their mission are formidable.
The most toxic sites in each N.J. county
Under their watch, the state has racked up a long list of environmental successes, including introducing the nation's first testing program for auto emissions, and protecting vast tracts of open space from developers' bulldozers.
While he was in Congress, Florio wrote the bill that would become the Superfund law, designed to clean up some of the worst contaminated waste sites in the country, sites that were befouling our air and our water.
Now he fears - with just cause - that money for these projects will dry up and progress will cease.
Byrne championed the protection of the Pinelands, creating a review committee that offered a blueprint to safeguard the well-being of this spacious terrain of pine oak forests, streams and rivers.
In his inaugural address, Kean stressed that "Our children and our grandchildren deserve the right to live and work in this state free from the fears of poisons in their air, water and earth."
The good news is that a Quinnipiac poll earlier this month indicated that a majority of Americans surveyed share that belief. No fewer than 61 percent of the respondents said they disapprove of the way Trump is handing the environment.
Count us in that majority. And color us grateful that a dedicated team of New Jersey's elder statesmen (and woman) is sane enough to value America's environmental well-being ahead of party politics.
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