(TRENTON) — Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman John F. McKeon (D-Essex) issued a multimedia package Thursday in which he announced he would be holding a public hearing in Linden on the proposed $225 million settlement agreement between the state and ExxonMobil for the environmental damage caused by Exxon’s refinery operations in Bayonne and Linden.
The multimedia package consists of commentary and the announcement from McKeon and audio and a transcript of same.
The video can be accessed directly via our website — www.assemblydems.com — or by clicking here.
The audio file is available upon request.
A transcript from Assemblyman McKeon is appended below.
The chairman said that specific details about the public hearing would be forthcoming.
Assemblyman John F. McKeon (D-Essex), Assembly Judiciary Committee Chairman:
“This is about information. This is a matter of transparency; it’s a matter of sharing with the public all of our analysis now that the entire settlement agreement has been made public. What needed to be teased out were very many components of it. The fact that there were, you know, 1760 Exxon stations over and above that have now been taken out of future NRD claims. Certainly the judge wasn’t made aware of it, because that was not part of the litigation that is now part of the settlement. And that’s of great significance.
“And now we’re going to go out to the public and allow the folks that are in Linden and all over the state to speak and to let us hear what they have to say. This will give them an opportunity to vent and let us know what they feel and, I think, is important for us to hear.”