Before delving into this episode of
As the World (of Chris Christie) Turns (Our Stomachs), we'll have to make a
quick side trip to California, then backtrack fourteen years to when Arnold Schwarzenegger was running for governor:
Quote:
...The wannabe governor has yet to deny that on May 17, 2001, at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles, he had consensual political intercourse with Enron chieftain Kenneth Lay...Schwarzenegger knowingly joined the hush-hush encounter as part of a campaign to sabotage a...plan to make Enron and other power pirates then ravaging California pay back the...illicit profits they carried off...
The biggest single threat to Ken Lay and the electricity lords is a private lawsuit filed (under) the "Unfair Business Practices Act." This litigation...would make the power companies return the $9 billion they filched from California electricity and gas customers. Who's the plaintiff taking on the bad guys? Cruz Bustamante, Lieutenant Governor and reluctant leading candidate against Schwarzenegger...
The evidence against the electricity barons is rock solid...So...George Bush's energy regulators...cook up a terrific scheme: charge the companies with conspiracy but offer them, behind closed doors, deals in which they have to pay only two cents on each dollar they filched...
Problem: the slap-on-the-wrist refunds won't sail if (Grey Davis)...the Governor of California, won't play along. Solution: Re-call the Governor. New Problem: the guy most likely to replace Davis is...Cruz Bustamante...Solution: smear Cruz Bustamante...
The pay-off? Once Arnold is Governor, he blesses the sweetheart settlements with the power companies...There aren't many judges who will let a case go to trial to protect a state if that governor has already allowed the matter to be "settled" by a regulatory agency...(Meanwhile)...the state of California is in the hole by $8 billion for the coming year...
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To this day, Governor Ahh-nuld says he does not recall attending such a meeting. And
Ken Lay died in 2006, resulting in the criminal conviction against him being vacated, a VERY private funeral, and his immediate cremation...unless he actually hopped into a plane or boat with a cargo of money and is living on a VERY private island somewhere.
All of which has what to do with Christie? Well, as the saying goes, if you don't know your history, you're doomed to repeat it:
Quote:
New York Times: A long-fought legal battle to recover $8.9 billion in damages from Exxon Mobil Corporation for the contamination and loss of use of more than 1,500 acres of wetlands, marshes, meadows and waters in northern New Jersey has been quietly settled by the state for around $250 million.
The lawsuits, filed by the State Department of Environmental Protection in 2004, had been litigated by the administrations of four New Jersey governors, finally advancing last year to trial. By then, Exxon’s liability was no longer in dispute; the only issue was how much it would pay in damages.
But a month ago, with a State Superior Court judge believed to be close to a decision on damages, the Christie administration twice petitioned the court to hold off on a ruling because settlement talks were underway. Then, last Friday, the state informed the judge that the case had been resolved...
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Quote:
IBTimes.com: Only three months before New Jersey agreed to accept $250 million in cash from ExxonMobil to settle claims the oil giant sullied public land, Gov. Chris Christie was still signaling a hard line. The governor called the ecological damage from the firm’s refining operations “staggering and unprecedented,” and his administration continued to pursue a state lawsuit seeking nearly $9 billion in damages.
Yet as the Christie administration this week agreed to shut down its case for a fraction of its original demands, a little-noticed provision tucked into the governor's 2014 state budget appears to shed light on why he was willing to strike a settlement that quickly drew accusations of reckless lenience from environmentalists. The language in question -- the handiwork of Christie's own administration -- empowers the governor to divert money obtained from environmental litigation away from pollution cleanup programs and into the state’s general fund, where it can be used to fill budget gaps or finance corporate subsidies.
The provision explicitly takes precedence over other state laws designed to direct proceeds from environmental lawsuits into New Jersey’s environmental protection programs...And because the provision is temporary, remaining in force only until a new budget is enacted, critics say that it effectively encourages Christie’s administration to settle cases as quickly as possible to free up cash that the governor can then tap however he sees fit...
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That works out to 2.7 cents on the dollar for the people of New Jersey. For the people of ExxonMobil, however, it works out to $6,108.00 on the dollar, because since 2010,
they've made contributions of $1,475,000 to -- WAIT FOR IT!!! -- Christie's Republican Governor's Fund! What a lovely way of celebrating Christie's record
NINTH credit downgrade! Take it away, Rachel Maddow...
http://youtu.be/O2AD8QN28_Y?t=3m32s