Long Beach Mayor Joe Mancini: ‘Jack Is the Jersey Shore’s Best Choice For Governor’
(October 15) Long Beach Township Mayor Joseph (Joe) Mancini is endorsing Jack Ciattarelli for governor and encouraging shore residents to vote for “Jack,” a business owner and a former assemblyman and business owners because: “Jack understands the Jersey Shore in ways our current governor and the Democratic candidate do not. He is invested in the shore; he owns a house in Surf City, so to him living at the shore is not an abstract idea. It’s real to him as it is to millions of us.”
“The Jersey Shore is not a location for liberal experiments in power generation. It is not a showcase for questionable climate policies. The Jersey Shore is home to millions of hard-working people and thousands of business owners – and it is a destination for millions of people who want to bury their feet in the sand and swim in the ocean,” added Mancini.
NO WIND TURBINES
Mancini has been a vocal critic of Gov. Phil Murphy’s plans to have wind turbines built a few miles off the Jersey coast, and of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Resilient Environments and Landscapes (REAL) rules, which Murphy is trying to enact, without legislative oversight, before his term in office ends in January.
Mancini says Ciattarelli’s Democratic rival, Mikie Sherrill, has — according to published comments — described New Jersey as “perfectly poised” to be a global leader in the offshore wind sector.
“Rep. Sherrill will try to enact the same policies as Gov. Muphy has, the policies that are resoundingly harmful to shore communities,” says Mancini.
Ciattarelli has opposed Murphy’s massive offshore wind projects and the huge tax breaks the administration is giving to wind companies.
“The construction of windmills may sound like a viable energy solution if you live in Essex or Passaic or Bergen counties. If you live in Ocean, Monmouth, Atlantic or Cape May counties, wind turbines are a destructive force that will hurt our economy, damage our fragile ecological balance and upend our quality of life . Jack understands that. His opponent does not,” said Mancini, who has been mayor for 17 years of Long Beach, a non-partisan town.
UNREAL RULES
Mancini said he hopes that if Ciattarelli is elected he will immediately dismantle the REAL act if it becomes law. The mayor told the DEP in late July that his town is deeply concerned that the REAL rules are; “premature, inequitable, and based on speculative long-range projections that lack the scientific certainty and policy justification required for such sweeping mandates.”
Mancini adds that the proposed REAL rules are based on speculative science about the future of sea level rises that most likely will never occur – thus mandating huge costs for homeowners and taxpayers to prevent flooding that is unlikely. The DEP is proposing rules that would mandate additional raising of homes and businesses to 10 feet after most structures have already been raised following Superstorm Sandy.
He told the DEP that the cost of again raising structures at the shore would bankrupt many homeowners and small business owners –“based largely on a 17% probability that sea levels may rise 5 feet by the year 2100, thus forcing homeowners and municipalities to shoulder immediate and costly burdens based on a long-term projection with an 83% chance of not occurring.”
Mancini said that with Ciattarelli as governor, he foresees DEP rule-making based on practical science and cost concerns, not an agenda driven by ideology.”
“What the shore communities need in a governor is a person who will listen to us, respect our concerns and not use us as experiments for a liberal agenda on climate change,” said Mancini. “I believe we will have that person if Jack Ciattarelli is elected governor.”