For Immediate Release
Contact: Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100
Representatives of Liberty State Park for All have come out with statements saying that Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, called for a full cleanup of the park. The Coalition is an astroturf organization backed by Paul Fireman and corporate lobbyist Eric Shuffler that supports the expansion of Liberty National onto Caven Point. However, they fail to mention that the statement put out by Jeff Tittel included a warning that if the state doesn’t do a full cleanup of Liberty State Park, someone could come in and say that they’ll clean up the park in exchange for privatizing it. The New Jersey Sierra Club has said that they support DEP’s plan for cleaning up the interior of the park and that it is long overdue.
An astroturfer stated: “I welcome the comments of Jeff Tittel and the Sierra Club that they will be calling for a full clean-up of the Park.”
Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, responded: “The corporate lobbyists and billionaires that want to privatize and destroy Liberty State Park will stop at nothing. They created an astroturf group to back them up on efforts to take over Liberty State Park. They deliberately misquoted me and took things out of context. My quote warned about them using the cleanup as an excuse to privatize Liberty State Park for their Millionaire’s Golf Course. We have said very clearly that we support DEP’s cleanup plan for the interior of Liberty State Park and it is long overdue. I worded my quote that way because I was concerned that these unscrupulous forces would try to use a full cleanup as an excuse to bring in a private golf course.”
This is my exact quote from September 3, 2020: “We are glad that DEP is fully cleaning up part of the park. Now they need a full clean up plan for the whole park. They are going to cap some of the contamination in the park, but caps will fail. More importantly, this could be used as an excuse by somebody to come in and say they’ll clean up the park in exchange for privatizing it. We will not tolerate this. This park is protected under the Public Trust Doctrine and we will not let anyone break that trust.”
Jeff Tittel continued: “This is exactly what I warned about, that the corporate lobbyists would try to use a full cleanup as a way to get their hands on the park. This is more than a misquote, this is a deliberate lie with the intent to deceive the public. They will stop at nothing to get what they want. This is something that Donald Trump would do and it is an insult to what Liberty State Park stands for. This is a park for all people and is the gateway to this country. It is outrageous that they are using my words to deliberately mislead the public. My quote warned about them using the cleanup as an excuse to privatize Liberty State Park for a billionaire so they can build a Millionaire's Golf Course.
“We have been working for decades to clean up and protect Liberty State Park. DEP’s cleanup plan is a major step in the right direction, but we still need to protect the park from privatization. This is a park that represents both The Statue of Liberty and the gateway to our country. This is one of the most visited state parks in the country, and it needs permanent protection. DEP needs to move quickly to get a full cleanup plan in place and to protect Liberty State Park from privatization. We must make sure that the park that is named after the Statue of Liberty belongs to all of us and stays open to all of us.”