As New Jerseyans continue to battle to keep fracking out of the Delaware River Basin and fracking waste out of our waterways, director Josh Fox has released his second film on the controversial and dangerous practice: GASLAND Part II. Join us for a free screening next week!

LONG BRANCH - Residents, businesses and municipalities looking to rebuild storm-damaged properties along the Shore could be saved long delays by the streamlining of the state permit process.

The N.J. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) held a May 22 public hearing in Long Branch to gather public comment on changes to the Coastal Permit Program rules and Coastal Zone Management rules that would help property owners, businesses and municipalities rebuild by eliminating or reducing time needed for DEP reviews for projects.

At a ceremony honoring the rebuilding of a Lavallette, N.J. boardwalk on Monday, Governor Chris Christie said that climate change was definitely not a contributing factor to Superstorm Sandy.

"I don't think there's been any proof thus far that Sandy was caused by climate change," Christie said. "But I would absolutely expect that that's exactly what WNYC would say, because you know liberal public radio always has an agenda."

So now Chris Christie is a climate-change denier. He was at a ceremony Monday, just a few hours before Moore, Oklahoma, got pounded for the sixth time in recent years, doing the sort of thing governors love to do-pounding the ceremonial final nail into the rebuilt boardwalk in Lavallette, New Jersey. A reporter from WNYC/New Jersey Public Radio asked him about her stations' investigative report on the state's extreme lack of preparedness for Hurricane Sandy. Should state agencies, he was asked, have made preparations with climate change in mind?
Superstorm Christie

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses a gathering May 16 in Sayreville, New Jersey. He says there has not been proof that Hurricane Sandy was caused by climate change. (Mel Evans/AP)

The state has talked a lot in recent years about environmental justice -- a term used to question why major polluting facilities are often located in the poorest urban areas. But to many local activists, New Jersey has decidedly not backed up its words with deeds.

Newark's Ironbound District is a prime example of this predicament.

It has the largest garbage incinerator in the state; the nation's fifth-largest plant for treating sewage; a major superfund site that has yet to be cleaned up nearly three decades after its discovery; and Liberty International Airport, a huge source of air pollution. A new natural gas plant also is expected to begin operating in the next few years.

And yet, when asked the obvious question - how Christie would address the climate change challenges that contributed to the superstorm and will, undoubtedly, create more in the future - the famously blunt governor said, "Now maybe, in the subsequent months and years, after I get done with trying to rebuild the state and put people back in their homes, I will have the opportunity to ponder the esoteric question of the cause of this storm."

What's "esoteric" about looking into the causes of the extreme - and extremely destructive - weather of the past few years? What's "esoteric" about doing everything possible to prevent another Sandy-like storm? There are lessons to be learned - and we ought to learn them.