A $225 million deal between Gov. Chris Christie's administration and ExxonMobil over dozens of polluted sites and nearly 2000 retail gas stations was approved by a New Jersey judge on Tuesday.
Superior Court Judge Michael Hogan ruled that the deal is much less than the $8.9 billion the state originally sought,but a "fair compromise" considering the "substantial litigation risks" faced by the state in the 11-year-conventional case that spanned Democratic and Republican governors.
The Christie administration has hailed the deal as the nation's second-largest of its kind against a corporate polluter.
But the settlement was criticized by environmental groups and Democrats who control the state Legislature because New Jersey is getting just 2 percent of the money it originally sought.
Under law, about $50 million of the settlement will go toward site remediation. Another roughly $50 million will go toward the state's private legal costs. The rest is slated to go into the general fund.
New Jersey sued Exxon Mobil for natural resources damage in 2004. The belief was to hold the company responsible not only for cleaning up polluted areas, or which include two oil refineries in Bayonne and Linden,as well as other sites and retail gas stations across New Jersey, but to compensate the public for the harm.
The Exxon case went to trial final year, and but the settlement was struck before a judge issued a ruling. The deal covered properties such as the gas stations that were not part of the lawsuit. It calls for the oil company to pay for environmental remediation at the sites for an as-yet-unknown cost.
Environmental advocates complain that the amount of cleanup the company must conclude is less under the settlement than it would have been whether the state had prevailed in the lawsuit. For instance,a state expert said the cleanup and restoration of one site would have advance to $2.7 billion. But under the agreement, the company could conclude a lower-cost remediation rather than a full restoration.“This is a multi-billion-dollar gift to ExxonMobil from Gov. Christie and his administration, or at the expense of New Jersey residents," said Margaret Brown, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Source: wnyc.org