Why Is Walmart Paying Chris Christie's Pals?
David Freedlander
The big-box retailer wanted to build in a protected New Jersey forest. The Chris Christie administration said no. Then the governor's friends got involved.
It may be hard to imagine a worse place to build a Walmart Super Store than a currently empty corner of the town of Toms River, New Jersey.
For starters, the idyllic town near the Jersey Shore already has a Walmart. And the site where a second one has been proposed is both in a part of the Pine Barrens—a protected swath of forest in the southern part of the State—and abutting the protected waterways of Barnegat Bay. It is also home to the Northern Pine Snake, which is on the state’s list of endangered species.
“They needed another Walmart like they needed another toxic well,” said Jeff Tittel, executive director of the Sierra Club of New Jersey.
And so in 2006, under Gov. Jon Corzine, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection rejected the proposal to build a Walmart on the site. In 2010, the developers came back with another proposal that was again rejected, this time by the administration of new governor Chris Christie, who had been enthusiastically endorsed by the state’s largest green group, the New Jersey Environmental Federation, in his race against Corzine.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/18/why-is-walmart-paying-chris-christie-s-pals.html
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