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March 5, 2015

Christie Admin Accused of Forcing Lenient Exxon Settlement for Environmental Damage in New Jersey 
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A former New Jersey environmental official says the office of Gov. Chris
Christie pushed through a favorable settlement that potentially saved
the oil giant Exxon Mobil billions of dollars. Last week, New Jersey
quietly agreed to accept just $250 million from Exxon after initially
seeking $8.9 billion for environmental contamination more than a decade
ago. The settlement came just two months after the state attorney
general's office made a strong demand for the original $8.9 billion
claim, saying in a court brief: "The scope of the environmental damage
resulting from the discharges is as obvious as it is staggering and
unprecedented in New Jersey." Writing today in The New York Times,
Bradley Campbell, the former commissioner of New Jersey's Department of
Environmental Protection, says Governor Christie's chief counsel,
Christopher Porrino, "inserted himself into the case, elbowed aside the
attorney general and career employees who had developed and prosecuted
the litigation, and cut the deal favorable to Exxon."

 

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