Please contact your legislators and governor immediately and tell them you do not want the Permit Extension Act of 2008 (S1919/A2867). These bills will do little to jump start a bad national economy, but will harm the environment of New Jersey and the health of its citizens. In a scenario similar to "Fast Track", these bills were proposed at a time when legislators are engaged in trying to pass a State budget before the deadline of June 30 and harried taxpayers are working and involved in the traditional June activities of school, graduations, and sports. In other words, while no one is paying attention! The bills are scheduled for committee votes starting June 12 and for full Assembly and Senate votes shortly thereafter. Their sponsors and special-interest supporters are steaming ahead, just as they did with "Fast Track."

These bills would postpone until 2014 the expiration of any permit or approval from state, county or municipal governments, regardless of new facts or improved technologies in the NEXT SIX YEARS! It would also revive any permit or approval that expired from Jan. 1, 2006 on. The sponsors of the bills claim that this is necessary to help promote development and improve the economy. NJEL believes that the current economic downturn has a number of causes, including the credit crisis caused by real estate speculation and failed markets on Wall Street. If credit is not available to developers or prospective buyers, rollbacks of environmental protections are NOT going to help. As usual, special interests use economic problems as an opportunity to dismantle environmental protections. They convince worried taxpayers that environmental protection, not the bad decisions of corporations and individuals, are to blame of economic problems.

Make no mistake-no matter how it is sold to the public, not only will these bills stop New Jersey's progress toward protecting its air and water quality, it has the capacity to ROLL BACK recently enacted protections.

The Department of Environmental Protection's new storm water management regulations to reduce the risk of flooding would not apply to any permit that has already expired. The State's goals of reducing greenhouse gases would be harder to achieve because the state could not force projects that have not started to comply with new energy codes and green building methods. The permits issued for the Kiddie Kollege site, which was built on a mercury factory, could be revived. Any other school that received a certificate of occupancy but was found to be built on contaminated property could be used for your kids!

Please tell the Governor and your legislators that they should spend their time finding ways to reduce property taxes and waste, measures that will make New Jersey's economy vibrant, rather than on measures that will do nothing but give a windfall to developers at the expense of our health and safety!

Don't know who your Assemblyperson or State Senator is? Click on the email address of your county's representatives and you will be automatically taken to an email page where you can write your own message. To send a message to the Governor, you must select from a list of topics in dialog boxes on his home page. We suggest that you click on "Natural Resources," then on "Pollution and Contamination." If you can, let us know that you sent a message. And THANKS for having a DIRECT HAND in protecting our environment!