But the firestorm that erupted in the immediate aftermath of the bill becoming law led McGreevey to issue an executive order delaying implementation pending further debate and leaving the law's fate to his successor. That moratorium is set to expire next month.

In the meantime, companion bills were introduced in the state senate and assembly to repeal the law altogether. Bill S2157 was introduced by senators Leonard Lance (R-Hunterdon) and Shirley Turner (D-Mercer), and A3650 was introduced by assemblymen Robert Morgan (D-Monmouth), Mike Panter (D-Monmouth) and John E. Rooney (R-Bergen). The two bills have since garnered the sponsorship of 32 Democratic and 26 Republican legislators.

"With 58 sponsors and Earth Day this week, it's time to put repeal up for a vote," Turner says. "Failing that, leadership should postpone implementation of fast-track until next year when a new governor and legislature can start over and put together a bill that will provide for real smart growth and redevelopment."

Lance, meanwhile, terms the fast-track law, "the greatest threat to New Jersey's environment. Now is the time to have the debate we never had when fast-track was written behind closed doors and then rammed through the legislature in three days. I call on the assembly speaker and the senate president to post this bill."

This morning, Senator Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland), a prime mover behind the fast-track law, issued a statement in which he termed the repeal sponsors "wisdom-resistant, no-growth zealots who have misinformed some of my legislative colleagues about the law's impacts. There's no way I will roll over and let them try to 'fast track' the repeal of a good law."I can't believe I still hear the environmental anarchists claiming the…law overrides local zoning decisions. That's a willful distortion of reality," the statement concludes.

The New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club promptly jumped into the fray later this morning with a statement of its own. It read, in part, "Sierra Club is appalled at Sen. Sweeney's personal attack against his legislative colleagues. Legislators oppose Fast Track because they know it turns the clock back 30 years on environmental progress and it undermines good planning and zoning.

"What legislators and environmentalists are calling for is to have public hearing…so we can have a good, healthy public debate," the statement continued. "Sen. Sweeney should know that insults and lies do not conceal the apparent truth that Fast Track will undermine New Jersey's environment and economy."

Instant Insights /

GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Legislators, Environmentalists Urge Repeal of Fast-Track Legislation

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