In a slap in the face to former New Jersey governor and current U.S. EPA Administrator Christie Whitman, New Jersey plans to scrap an air-pollution-control program her administration had touted as a model for the nation. The Open Market Emissions Trading Program allows companies to pollute above permitted levels if they buy credits from other companies that have successfully reduced their emissions; some 39 companies have made use of it to meet emissions standards. Now, state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell is pulling the plug, saying the program has hurt state efforts to reduce air pollution. “The program has failed,” Campbell wrote in a letter to the U.S. EPA. That blunt assessment didn’t deter Whitman from singing its praises as late as yesterday, nor from continuing to push a national emissions trading plan.
