NJ Democratic Lawmakers Press Opposition To Exxon Pollution Settlement

"Democrats in the Legislature continued their multi-front effort to block a $225 settlement with Exxon Mobil in a pollution case in which the state originally sought $8.9 billion.

On Thursday, the Assembly Judiciary Committee heard 90 minutes of testimony in search of details on the case involving decades of contamination of refinery sites in Linden and Bayonne. That came three days after all 24 of the Senate’s Democrats voted in favor of a resolution condemning the settlement, and that is on top of a pledge by Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Sen. Ray Lesniak to file a motion to intervene in the case.

And Lesniak, who is also a lawyer and grew up near one of the sites in question, has floated another possibility in what has quickly turned into a political cause célèbre. He has requested documents related to the case – requests that have either been denied or unfulfilled – to build an argument against the settlement that would be decided outside the trial court."

Dustin Racioppi reports for the Bergen County Record March 19, 2015.