Claim: NJ targets pollution in poorer areas with 6 lawsuits.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: ExxonMobil
text: Environmental Protection sued ExxonMobil for $8.9 billion for lost wetland resources at Constable Hook in Bayonne and Bayway Refinery in Linden. Although a New Jersey Superior Court justice was believed to be close to a ruling, the Christie Administration repeatedly asked the judge to wait, since they were reaching a settlement with ExxonMobil's attorneys. On Friday, February 19th, 2015, lawyers for the Christie administration informed the judge that a deal had been reached. Details of the $225 million settlement - roughly 3% of what the state originally sought - were not immediately released. Christopher Porrino served as Chief Counsel to

title: Passaic River
text: and Tierra Solutions Inc. to clean a portion of the polluted river. A New Jersey Superior Court judge, ruling in July and September 2011, stated that Occidental and Maxus Exergy Corporation (a subsidiary of YPF) are liable for remediation in other portions of the river. In 2013, several corporate defendants agreed to pay the State of New Jersey $130 million for ecological damages related to Passaic River pollution. However, it is unclear as to whether the state will actually use this money for clean-up efforts. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) has issued notices banning commercial fishing and

title: Allegheny Energy
text: causes smog, acid rain, and different respiratory disease. "New Jersey continues to pursue litigation to protect our citizens' health and meet clean air quality standards," Gov. Jon S. Corzine said. "This decision proves that New Jersey can and will pursue action to enforce the Clean Air Act's protections even when the federal government abdicates its own responsibility to do so." The 2005 suit claimed that three plants at issue in the litigation were at the time emitting in total hundreds of thousands of tons of pollutants a year. It also claimed that the three plants were putting out more nitrogen

title: Governorship of Chris Christie
text: in damages for environmental contamination at two sites, less than 3% of the $8.9 billion that the state's lawyers had sought, and extended the compensation to cover other damages not named in the original lawsuit. Environmentalists were apoplectic, slamming the settlement as wholly inadequate. David Pringle, campaign director for the state chapter of Clean Water Action, called it "the biggest corporate subsidy in state history". Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club called this move "a violation of the public trust." The New Jersey State Senate also condemned the deal. Now-former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Bradley

title: Carneys Point Township, New Jersey
text: home to the Dupont Corporation Chamber Works, a facility covering that was listed No. 4 on the "Mother Jones" top 20 polluters of 2010, legally discharging over of toxic chemicals into New Jersey and Delaware River waterways. In 2016, the township initiated a $1.1 billion lawsuit against the corporation, accusing it of divesting the Chambers Works to Chemours without first remediating the property as required by law to address the of pollutants emitted into the soil and water in the century that the facility has been in operation. The Census Bureau's 2006-2010 American Community Survey showed that (in 2010 inflation-adjusted

title: ExxonMobil-New Jersey environmental contamination settlement
text: which was also highly critical of the deal, said it will further weaken environmental protection efforts that Christie had already undermined throughout his tenure as governor. Environment New Jersey and the Delaware Riverkeeper also advocated the settlement be overturned. NY/NY Baykeeper executive director Debbie Mans suggested that Exxon could not be trusted to finish the cleanup properly, suggesting that anyone who believes they would is "dreaming". Bradley M. Campbell is an attorney and former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s mid-Atlantic region from 1999 to 2001, who initiated

title: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
text: Hudson Riverkeeper. Kennedy and his students also sued dozens of municipal waste-water treatment plants to force compliance with the Clean Water Act. In 2010, a Pace lawsuit forced ExxonMobil to clean up tens of millions of gallons of oil from legacy refinery spills in Newtown Creek in Brooklyn, New York. On April 11, 2001, Men's Journal recognized Kennedy with its "Heroes" Award for his creation of the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic. Kennedy and his Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic received other awards for successful legal work cleaning up the environment. The Pace Clinic became a model for similar environmental law clinics

title: Environment America
text: schools, solar projects on school campuses, Californian cities' solar power production, "green job" training programs within the state, and the costs of fossil fuels. In 2009, Environment Texas and the Sierra Club filed similar lawsuits against Chevron Phillips for alleged violations of pollution limits and the Shell Oil Company for alleged illegal air pollution emissions. Shell Oil Company agreed to pay a $5.8 million settlement, reduce emissions from its Deer Park refinery by 80%, upgrade chemical units, and reduce gas flaring. The following year, the environmental groups sued the largest oil refinery in the United States, Exxon Mobil, accusing it

title: ExxonMobil-New Jersey environmental contamination settlement
text: suggested the settlement was rushed by the administration to plug immediate budget shortfalls. In an op-ed in NJ.com, state Senator Raymond Lesniak called for the state's acting attorney general John Jay Hoffman to resign for his role in the settlement. Environmental Advocates immediately slammed the settlement as wholly inadequate. David Pringle, campaign director for the state chapter of Clean Water Action, called it "the biggest corporate subsidy in state history". “Governor Christie has abandoned his responsibility to protect the public trust’’ said Pringle, advocating that the deal be overturned. Jeff Tittel, director of the state's chapter of the Sierra Club,

title: ExxonMobil-New Jersey environmental contamination settlement
text: In June 2018, The New Jersey Surpeme Court ruled that challengers to the settlement had not standing, thus preventing any further recourse. ExxonMobil-New Jersey environmental contamination settlement The Exxon Mobil-New Jersey Environmental Pollution Settlement was a 2015 legal settlement between Exxon Mobil Corporation and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, over contaminated sites at oil refinery plants and other facilities at Bayway Refinery in Linden and Bayonne Refinery in Bayonne, New Jersey dating back to the Standard Oil's use of the properties starting in the 1870s. The settlement was controversially settled by Governor Chris Christie's Administration for far less

title: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
text: public and converted to a police firing range. Kennedy also led a battle to stop a plan to sell Washington D.C.'s Kingman Island—one of the rare National Parks in a minority neighborhood—to a private developer. In 2004, Kennedy and Riverkeeper successfully sued Exxon to clean up a large oil spill on Newton Creek in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Kennedy has argued that poor communities shoulder the disproportionate burden of environmental insults. Speaking at SXSW Eco environmental conference in Austin in 2016, he said, "Polluters always choose the soft target of poverty," noting as an example the highest concentration of toxic waste dumps

title: Camden, New Jersey
text: industrial pollution sites, including the Camden County Sewage Plant, the County Municipal Waste Combustor, the world's largest licorice processing plant, chemical companies, auto shops, and a cement manufacturing facility, are present in the Waterfront South neighborhood, which covers less than one square mile. The neighborhood contains 20% of Camden's contaminated areas and over twice the average number of pollution-emitting facilities per New Jersey ZIP Code. According to the Rutgers University Journal of Law and Urban Policy, African-American residents of Waterfront South have a greater chance of developing cancer than anywhere in the state of Pennsylvania, 90% higher for females and

title: Lisa P. Jackson
text: fish and wildlife programs and historic preservation. As commissioner in July 2006, she had to shut down all state parks and beaches due to the state governmental shutdown in relation to the state budget delay. As the state's chief environmental enforcer, Jackson led compliance sweeps in Camden and Paterson, communities in which the effects of pollution on public health had long been neglected. She launched the environmental initiative following multicultural outreach efforts to inform and involve community residents and businesses. Working with county officials, New Jersey State Police and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the New Jersey Department of Environmental

title: Marlboro Township, New Jersey
text: hydrocarbons. A number of companies may have been responsible for waste oil discharges and arsenical pesticides released to a nearby stream as industrial operations date back to 1912. The area is protected by a fence that completely encloses it. This site is being addressed through Federal and State actions. Mayor Hornik of Marlboro Township, described the polluted site as "one of the worst in the country." In 1991, EPA excavated and disposed of an on-site waste filter clay pile. In 1997, EPA posted warning signs on the Henry Hudson Trail which is located near the site and the tarp covering

title: ExxonMobil-New Jersey environmental contamination settlement
text: Exxon in 1991 agreed to clean up contaminated sites at Bayway and Bayonne without specified spending caps. Officials suggest that in the past century over seven million gallons of oil have been spilled or leaked, with over 600 contaminants found in the soils between the two refineries. As of 2015, contamination covered over 1,800 acres in the Bayway area. Although federal law authorized states to sue corporations for environmental damages in the 1970s, a judge in 2009 ruled that ExxonMobil could nonetheless be liable for damages caused before the law passed, dating back to the 1870s. As of 2015, Exxon

title: GenOn Energy
text: States, with roughly 34 million pounds of toxic chemicals released into the air every year. Major pollutants indicated by the study include sulfuric and hydrochloric acid as well as manganese, chromium, and nickel compounds. In December 2007, the US state of New Jersey sued Reliant Energy, claiming that emissions from a Pennsylvania coal-fired power plant hurt the state's air quality. New Jersey claims emissions of smog and acid rain components sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from Reliant's Portland Generating Station in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, drift into its territory. The lawsuit also claims that Reliant violated the federal Clean Air Act

title: BP
text: Disulfide and other toxic chemicals into the atmosphere” reads the report. The lawsuit further claims Galveston county has the worst air quality in the United States due to BP's violations of air pollution laws. BP had no comment and said it would address the suit in the court system. In 2006, a group of Colombian farmers reached a multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlement with BP for alleged environmental damage caused by the Ocensa pipeline. An agreed statement said: "The Colombian farmers group are pleased to say that after a mediation process which took place in Bogotá in June 2006 at the joint

title: DuPont
text: 7,086,303. One of DuPont's facilities was listed No. 4 on the "Mother Jones" top 20 polluters of 2010, legally discharging over of toxic chemicals into New Jersey and Delaware waterways. In 2016, Carneys Point Township, New Jersey, where the facility is located, initiated a $1.1 billion lawsuit against the corporation, accusing it of divesting an unprofitable company without first remediating the property as required by law. In 2012 DuPont was named to the Carbon Disclosure Project Global 500 Leadership Index. Inclusion is based on company performance on sustainability metrics, emissions reduction goals, and environmental performance transparency. In 2014 DuPont was

title: ExxonMobil-New Jersey environmental contamination settlement
text: had paid for roughly $260 million in cleanups. In 2004, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection sued ExxonMobil for $8.9 billion, over lost wetland resources, which were not originally covered under the cleanup agreement. At the time, it was the largest amount ever sought in a contamination civil suit. In 2008, a judge ruled that ExxonMobil was responsible for "creating a public nuisance" with severe environmental contamination at sites around the refineries, thus initiating new litigations over how much Exxon was liable to pay to the state of New Jersey. ExxonMobil contended that it merely acted as government permits

title: ExxonMobil-New Jersey environmental contamination settlement
text: ExxonMobil-New Jersey environmental contamination settlement The Exxon Mobil-New Jersey Environmental Pollution Settlement was a 2015 legal settlement between Exxon Mobil Corporation and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, over contaminated sites at oil refinery plants and other facilities at Bayway Refinery in Linden and Bayonne Refinery in Bayonne, New Jersey dating back to the Standard Oil's use of the properties starting in the 1870s. The settlement was controversially settled by Governor Chris Christie's Administration for far less than the state originally sought when it began the lawsuit in 2004, and has been the subject of intense criticism from activists