For Immediate ReleaseContacts:Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club, (609) 558-9100
May 29, 2013Richard Isaac, NJ Sierra Club, (973) 716-0297 David Turner, Buono Campaign, (848) 200-7827
Sierra Club Backs Senator Barbara Buono for Governor Trenton, NJ -- Today the Sierra Club announced its endorsement of State Senator Barbara Buono for governor.
"The Sierra Club endorsed Barbara Buono for governor because of her incredibly strong environmental record and for her having the strength and courage of her convictions to put her political career on the line to make a difference for the people of New Jersey -- with a record so exceptional she earned the Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter's Outstanding Achievement Award in November 2011," *said Jeff Tittel, Director of the Sierra Club New Jersey Chapter*.
"Barbara Buono has shown leadership and a real commitment to protecting our environment," continued Tittel. "In this election, the contrast between the records of Senator Barbara Buono and the current governor couldn't be clearer. In fact, May 26^th marks the second anniversary of Governor Christie's decision to remove New Jersey from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which was initially successful in improving New Jersey's environment and job market. Senator Buono as Governor would sign the fracking ban bill, fracking waste ban bill, and the Barnegat Bay TMDL.She would put New Jersey back into RGGI and get rid of the DEP Waiver Rule.The Highlands would be protected, we would have money for open space, and there would be windmills off our coast.That is why we support her for Governor. Senator Buono looks upon New Jersey's environment as a prominent concern by strongly supporting and voting to reaffirm New Jersey's participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) which continues to be the most successful greenhouse gas reduction program in the country. Despite this, the Governor still pulled New Jersey out of RGGI even though it helped the state reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 10%, assisted hundreds of clean energy businesses, and created or saved almost 18,000 jobs. Barbara Buono believes climate change and its environmental consequences are real and affect everyone, and has shown real leadership by prime-sponsoring the bipartisan Global Warming Response Act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while Governor Christie still views the issue of global warming an "esoteric issue" -- in spite of the fact that the National Climatic Data Center declared 2012 the warmest year for the contiguous U.S. by a wide margin and the second most extreme year on record."
"The Sierra Club is the nation's oldest conservation group and is proud to support Senator Buono for Governor.As a Senator Barbara has had a strong environmental record.We have worked closely with her for many years and awarded her the Club's Special Achievement Award in 2011.She will be a great Governor on environmental issues," said Ken Johanson, Chair, NJ Sierra Club. While this Governor has had this State abandon the 30% renewable goal established in the Energy Master Plan, reducing our clean energy goals to a 22.5% renewable energy standard, Senator Buono wants to make New Jersey once again a national leader in renewable energy and energy efficiency and is absolutely committed to restoring the 30% renewable energy goal as soon as she takes office. And while the Governor has eliminated funding for family planning/reproductive health care, leading to the closing of at least six centers and cuts to hours of other centers, Senator Buono is absolutely committed to returning and increasing the funding for family planning programs as, unlike the Governor, she fully understands that this funding for these programs helps save lives for women who cannot afford health insurance and funding actually saves the State money in the long run. Senator Barbara Buono was a founding member of the bipartisan Legislative Smart Growth Caucus, which promotes an anti-sprawl agenda. She strongly believes that the State has the right and moral obligation to regulate land use in order to preserve public trust resources, and would appoint individuals to the Council who are committed to protecting our open space and public drinking water. In stark contrast, Governor Christie made anti-environmental appointments to the New Jersey Highlands Council, with the vast majority of his appointees to the Council not only opposing the Highlands Act but opposing the protection of our water as well. Barbara Buono was a prime sponsor of legislation which significantly reduced children's exposure to toxic pesticides in the State's schools and was the prime sponsor of legislation that would have blocked the Waiver Rule andfully supports rescinding it now that it has unfortunately been put into place while, in stark contrast, the Governor pushed through the Waiver Rule at the Department of Environmental Protection, empowering the DEP Commissioner to waive virtually any section of any of NJDEP's 124 existing rules, allowing polluters and developers to be exempt from critical environmental and public health and safety protections. And while the Governor has tried to create a narrative about himself that he is above party politics while pushing many of his party's national anti-environment initiatives, Senator Barbara Buono has actually stood up to those in her own party when they pushed through Fast Track legislation to weaken the permit-approval process in so-called "smart growth" areas, and opposed them again when they later supported polluters by passing the Privatization of Site Remediation Act, which replaced NJDEP professionals with licensed site professionals employed by polluters to certify that toxic sites have been cleaned up."
"Rarely has the Sierra Club been presented with the opportunity to endorse a public official who is a true friend with a proven record of environmental leadership like Barbara Buono's," *concluded Richard Isaac, Political Chair of the Sierra Club's New Jersey Chapter.* "We fully embrace her candidacy and ask all of New Jersey's voters who care about the environment to do likewise."
/The Sierra Club is the nation's oldest and largest environmental group with more than a million members and supporters, about 20,000 of them here in New Jersey.As Tittel describes it, "The Sierra Club endorsement is the green version of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval."The group is committed to helping Barbara Buono win election to the Governorship by contributing volunteers to the campaign, going door-to-door, making phone calls, helping with fundraising, and in other ways./
-- Kate Millsaps Conservation Program Coordinator NJ Chapter of the Sierra Club 609-656-7612