Hi, folks,
It's been
pretty busy over the past 18 months (junior year, essays, APs, etc.), and
although my work has precluded me from posting on this blog, it has
nevertheless born fruit.
I was very
honored to have the opportunity to interview and subsequently write about
former New Jersey Governor Thomas H. Kean in the JFK Library's Profile in
Courage Essay Competition at the beginning of this year. In the spirit of
President Kennedy’s 1956 book Profiles in Courage, high school
students profile in 1000 words or less an elected official after 1956 who
displayed remarkable political courage on the local, state, or national level.
Of Governor Kean's many acts of political courage, I chose to highlight
his work as a freshman state assemblyman to save an obscure glacial lake from
industrial development in the late 1960s.
I am happy to
report that my essay placed second in the country out of 1,951 entries.
Economy and Ecology:
Perfect Together
Long
before he rose to prominence as New Jersey’s most respected governor, and
decades before he made history as Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas H.
Kean launched the first battle of his political career as a freshman State
Assemblyman to save an obscure glacial lake from industrial development.
In what would become a David-versus-Goliath encounter, Kean’s seemingly minor
environmental effort led him into a firestorm of opposition from special
interests bent on quashing his cause in order to advance a multi-billion dollar
energy program. By risking his political future on the widely ridiculed
cause of environmentalism in an industrial state, Kean not only secured for
posterity a unique natural wonder, but also charted a new course for the
identity and future soul of the Garden State.
Even
though it is only three miles from Interstate-80, Sunfish Pond is one of the
most remote places in New Jersey. Accessible only by foot, the path to
the state’s last glacial lake rises 1000 feet and winds its way over difficult
and treacherous terrain. That this secluded natural rarity survived
pressure from 1960s industry to be visited by over 250,000 people in 2013
speaks to a remarkable act of political courage against a modus operandi deeply
ingrained in New Jersey’s economic culture (Parks and Forestry).
In
1967, environmentalism had yet to become a true force in American politics. The
Environmental Protection Agency did not exist. There was no Earth
Day. Most Americans had little awareness of humanity’s effect on the
planet. Conservationism was commonly derided, and Kean, who labeled
himself the only environmentalist in New Jersey’s government, was ridiculed by
one assemblyman who exclaimed, “Essex County has sent a bird-watcher to the
state legislature” (Kean 18). Part of this attitude stemmed from New
Jersey’s traditional role as handmaiden to the New York and Philadelphia
metropolises. As an industrial backyard for two major cities, New Jersey
had little sense of its own identity, and the political climate revolved around
its status as an engine of economic growth. At the time, “jobs was the
be-all and the end-all…no matter what it came at the expense of” (Kean).
With this zero-sum atmosphere and single-minded focus on economic
development, any win for conservation was perceived as a loss for industry,
while proponents of human “progress” saw the destruction of natural beauty as
acceptable collateral damage (Clemens 9).
The
threat to Sunfish Pond came from its intended role as a pumped storage
reservoir within a larger energy initiative known as the Tocks Island Dam
project. This power plant would spell the end of the glacial lake’s
unique pristine beauty, destroying its watershed and much of the surrounding
ecosystem. Kean saw no reason why Sunfish Pond had to be incorporated
into the Tocks Island plan. To the junior assemblyman, the matter was “a
simple conservation effort—if you have something really beautiful and there’s
nothing like it in the state, then you probably shouldn’t let it be ruined, you
should probably preserve it” (Kean).
Unbeknownst to Kean, the focus of his “simple conservation effort” was
inextricably tied to the Tocks Island concept and the special interest groups
behind it. The pumped storage facility at Sunfish Pond actually comprised
the keystone of the entire plan (Kean). As a result, Kean encountered
opposition from many directions. He recalls, “It wasn’t until people
started coming out of the woodwork did I realize I’d put my finger in a
hornet’s nest.” (Kean). Kean found himself surrounded by the project’s
advocates, determined to persuade or compel him to withdraw his
objection. According to Kean, “they tried everything to get me off the
case—every single possible thing” (Kean). The state’s two most powerful
organizations, the Chamber of Commerce and organized labor, made their
discontent known. Tocks Island supporters labeled Kean a “traitor to
business” and suggested that psychological disorders were impairing his
judgment (Felzenberg 101). Lobbyists promised Kean additional campaign
donations if he complied with the utilities’ demands, and threatened to give to
his next opponent if he did not. The chairman of the GOP in Kean’s home
county told him that Kean’s environmentalism was “costing” the party (Kean).
Kean’s opponents even menaced his brother, head of the Elizabethtown
Water Company, intimating to Kean that his brother might not be successful when
he went to request a rate increase unless the upstart legislator changed his
stance on a certain glacial lake in the Delaware Water Gap.
Despite the fusillade, Kean pressed on. As he later acknowledged, “for a
freshman assemblyman, it was a rough experience. But the more they came
at me, the more I figured I was right” (Kean). Undaunted, he leveraged
allies in the press to bring attention to his cause and soon won the support of
most of the state’s newspapers. Kean authored a bill directing the state
to purchase Sunfish Pond and successfully steered it through the Assembly four
times, gaining cosponsors with each attempt (Felzenberg 100). Even though
the bill was defeated by utility allies in the Senate, Kean’s movement gained
momentum across the political landscape. After the initial corporate
attacks, Kean identified a number of significant flaws in the overall Tocks
Island project, leading to final victory in 1972 when New York and New Jersey
both withdrew support from the proposal altogether.
For most of its history, New Jersey resigned itself to a fate dominated by
industry at the expense of its natural beauty. By refusing to allow the
sacrifice of a special piece of his state on the altar of “progress,” Kean
overcame the conventional wisdom of the zero-sum game between New Jersey’s
economy and its ecology. Instead, he opted to “throw out the argument that it’s
either the jobs or the environment. It’s a false argument because it’s
all one” (Kean). As governor a decade later, Kean changed the way his
state regarded itself, reminding his fellow citizens that New Jersey was both
an economic powerhouse and “America the Beautiful—only smaller” (New Jersey
& You). By putting his political future on the line for a 44-acre
glacial pond, young Assemblyman Kean opened the door for New Jersey to claim
its rightful destiny as the Garden State.
Bibliography:
Clemens, Paul G. E. The Uses of
Abundance: A History of New Jersey's Economy. Trenton: New Jersey
Historical Commission, 1992. Print. New Jersey History Series 2.
Dale, Frank T. Delaware Diary:
Episodes in the Life of a River. New Brunswick: Rutgers University, 1996. GoogleBooks.
Web. 4 Jan. 2014.
<http://books.google.com/books?id=qN4ynPRYlKQC&pg=PA151&lpg=PA151&dq=sunfish+pond+william+o+douglas&source=bl&ots=RjgPcFb9Nw&sig=raOYn85GLV0nJBQOGFpeoQQlrWM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=w7vIUsaXOcmjsQSsqIHgDQ&ved=0CEsQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=sunfish%20pond%20william%20o%20douglas&f=false>.
Felzenberg, Alvin S. Governor Tom
Kean: From the New Jersey Statehouse to the 9-11 Commission. New Brunswick:
Rivergate, 2006. Print.
Harpster, Richard. "U.S. Opposes
Tocks Island Pumping Plan." Newark Evening News [Newark] 23 May
1967: n. pag. Rpt. in Public Hearing on Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 45,
Re Study of Proposed Uses of Sunfish Pond and Surrounding Area. N.p.: n.p.,
1967. 172. Print.
Kean, Thomas H. Personal interview. 2
Jan. 2014.
- - -. The Politics of Inclusion.
New York: Free, 1988. Print.
New Jersey. Committee on Agriculture,
Conservation, and Natural Resources. Hearings on the Senate Concurrent
Resolution No. 45, Re Study of Proposed Uses of Sunfish Pond and Surrounding
Area. 1968 Senate N.p.: n.p., 1968. Print.
New Jersey & You: Perfect Together.
Advertisement. Youtube. Web. 5 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yUsnESf3Ug>.
Parks and Forestry of the State of New
Jersey. Statistics on Worthington State Forest Attendance in 2013. 2 Jan. 2014.
Raw data.
