Under former Gov. Jon Corzine, the state of New Jersey had a mixed but fairly positive record on the environment. Corzine could have been stronger on nuclear plants and their environmental and health effects, and he could have done better opposing the still-controversial plan to deepen the Delaware River. Corzine did focus on bringing solar power to New Jersey. He put in policies that made the state a leader in solar power and that aimed for a 30 percent renewable energy target.

Gov. Christie is knocking that target down to 22.5 percent and wants to rethink the state's solar program. He's also promoting questionable energy sources, like waste incineration, and new nuclear power plants.

Christie came into office as a "tabula rasa," a blank slate, on environmental issues. At first he seemed to be doing pretty well for a Republican. He appointed Bob Martin as the new director of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Christie made the protection of the environmentally challenged Barnegat Bay a key issue for his administration, but then waffled over implementing the ideas of experts and locals on how to save Barnegat Bay.

As part of its initiative to protect Barnegat Bay, the DEP went after the Oyster Creek nuclear plant, demanding that Amergen, owner-operator of Oyster Creek, build cooling towers to stop the nuke plant's continual fish slaughter due to its archaic once-through cooling system. Since it was built, Oyster Creek has slaughtered millions of fish and other marine life, adding additional stressors to Barnegat Bay. The bay was already under attack from fertilizer runoff and the building of homes and businesses with their attendant pollution.

In the end the DEP cut a deal that allowed Oyster Creek to continue to kill fish for a few more years, but then shut down 10 years before its NRC permit was up. This was a victory of sorts for local enviros at the time, but the nuclear disaster in Japan changed all that.

Just recently, Christie pulled the state of New Jersey out of a regional greenhouse gas consortium, even though the state’s participation in the consortium provided funding for the ambitious solar and wind projects that have made New Jersey a leader in green energy development. Christie also rolled out his plan for the state's energy future, which involves less investment in renewable energy and more in natural gas and nuclear power. Christie even proposed building a new nuclear plant at Oyster Creek once the old one was finally decommissioned and removed. Of course, that wouldn't happen for 20 to 30 years from now. It was not clear from his statements that the governor understood how long it takes to shut down and decommission a nuclear power plant.

As for the nuclear disaster in Japan, a disaster that worsens day by day as more and more details find their way into the news (and more and more radiation finds its way to the United States mainland), Gov. Christie and his panel of “experts” have concluded that such a disaster could never happen here in New Jersey. This head-in-the-sand decision ignores the fact that both the Oyster Creek and Hope Creek nuclear plants are the same GE Mark I models as the melted down Fukushima nukes. Even NRC commissioners are concerned that nation-wide, owners of the Mark I nuclear plants, a design that was obsolete 40 years ago, have no effective plans to survive any number of scenarios akin to what hit Japan.

Worse yet, the NRC is poised to issue 20-year permit renewals for Hope Creek and Salem Units 1 and 2. What the NRC should be doing is suspending all permit renewals until the crisis in Japan is finally brought under control (which it is not, as of today). The NRC should be looking at shutting down all the Mark I reactors. And Gov. Christie should be leading that effort. Hope Creek and Oyster Creek represent a threat to the public and a risk that need not be put on New Jersey citizens.

There could be enough potential wind power in New Jersey from many sources: offshore, on-shore, and some of the hills in northwest New Jersey to replace much of the power now being produced by nuclear plants. Add to that a growing solar power industry, tidal/wave power and fuel cells, and we could have a nuclear-free Chris Christie and a nuclear-free New Jersey.

Campaign. Learn more at www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org and www.unplugsalem.org. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or (609) 335-8176.