Earth Day is a time for us all to come together and celebrate the great beauty of our planet. This is also a day to remember how fragile our environment is and to think about how we can fight back against growing threats and pollution.
I’ve spent my career fighting to protect New Jersey’s environment – our water, our beaches and our air. This is not just an issue of importance that I talk about on Earth Day, but rather something near and dear to my heart all year long. That’s why I wanted to take this opportunity to give you an update on some of the actions we are taking to protect our natural resources and treasures.
We all know how important clean beaches are to our shore economy. That’s why I was proud to help pass the Beach Protection Act. This landmark legislation requires tough new water quality testing and public notification standards so beachgoers can be confident the waters they’re swimming or surfing in are clean.
Nonetheless, we still find far too much pollution on our shores. Recently, Clean Ocean Action released their Beach Sweeps Report – which presented findings of over 301,500 items washing up over 132 sites statewide. Over the span of just a few months, they removed almost 4,200 bags of trash and nearly 60,000 pounds of debris from coastal habitats. The most common items found were plastic lids, caps, straws and shopping bags, as well as bottles, metal caps, food wrappers and cigarette filters. Sadly, far too many people seem to be forgetting the days – not too long ago - when our shores were closed due to dangerous and unhealthy debris.
Right now, our beaches and ocean waters are facing a new, potentially greater threat. President Obama recently announced plans to open up certain parts of the East Coast for exploration and drilling for oil and natural gas. This misguided policy is not simply troubling - it is unacceptable. So, I’m organizing colleagues, stakeholders, constituents and grassroots activists to write the President and tell him not to put our beaches in jeopardy. I hope you will join us in calling the White House or writing members of Congress.
I am also renewing my call for President Obama to issue an Executive Order to protect our beaches and shore economies by preventing offshore exploration and drilling. We simply cannot let Big Oil or their lobbyists call the shots. In the House, I am reintroducing the Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism Anti-Drilling Act to put a permanent legislative moratorium in place. There is little doubt that this is going to be a tough fight. But, with your help, I know it is one we can win. I’m already encouraging my colleagues in the House of Representatives to sign on as co-sponsors and supporters of this vital legislation.
Just last week, Congress passed the Clean Estuaries Act to improve the health of New Jersey’s waterways and coastal areas. This isn’t just an environmental issue – it is also an economic one. Thousands of New Jersey’s jobs, including commercial and recreational fishermen, are tied to the strength of our state’s coastal areas. This bipartisan legislation will fund better water quality and habitat restoration in areas to improve transition zones between fresh water from rivers and salt water from the ocean.
Right now, I’m also working with my good friend Senator Lautenberg to make sure those companies that create toxic messes are the ones paying to clean them up. We want to re-instate a "polluter pays" tax on chemical and petroleum industries to finance superfund clean-ups nationwide. The original bill expired during the Clinton administration when the Republicans took over Congress, and they refused to reinstate it. I am fighting to hold corporate polluters accountable for the sites they contaminate, once and for all. I am fighting to make sure these superfund clean-ups are no longer being funded solely with your taxpayer dollars.
We must remain vigilant in protecting our precious natural resources – not only when the weather is nice or when we feel "under attack." We must be proactive when it comes to conserving energy and working to reduce our carbon footprint. Simple steps, like using Energy Star appliances, signing up for clean power generation programs and recycling plastic goods and newspapers can make a huge difference. I will continue my fight to make New Jersey a hotbed of green energy technology by promoting tax cuts for residents who start using renewable domestic energy sources. Not only on Earth Day, but each and every day, we should be mindful of our actions, and fight to protect our environment.
