Mother Jones
This story first appeared on the Grist website and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
When Cory Booker’s name is mentioned in the same sentence with “green,” it’s usually in reference to the money he attracts. Still, in his six years as mayor of Newark, New Jersey, he’s been no slacker on the environmental front.
Tooting his own horn on his website, Booker credits himself with an impressive list of green achievements, among them creating “the largest parks and green-space expansion in Newark in over a century,” building hundreds of green affordable housing units, securing $1.5 million to reduce urban heat island effect, and creating “acres of urban farms” that benefit underserved neighborhoods.
Booker, who just trounced his tea party challenger, Steve Lonegan, in the race to succeed longtime Sen. Frank Lautenberg, now takes this experience, along with his state’s deep tradition of environmental justice advocacy, to Washington, DC. But when it comes to environmental policy, Booker has huge ECCO sandals to fill, and not everyone is as impressed with his green chops as he seems to be.
When Lautenberg passed away in June, Congress lost not only one of its most liberal members, but also one of its greenest. Lautenberg gave so much of his life to public transit that after his funeral his casket was transported via Amtrak, the train service he fought to keep alive. He pledged the same support for ferry service, which has also shown signs of decline lately.
Beyond that, Lautenberg was a primary sponsor of chemical labeling and safety legislation—a favored cause of celebrity actresses Jessica Alba and Jennifer Beals—and routinely scored at the top of his congressional class on report cards issued by food policy, parks conservation, and clean water advocacy groups (alternately scoring at the bottom among conservative advocacy and business interest groups).
Continue reading –
