Christie Administration Won’t Give Lawmaker Details On Exxon Settlement.

It's Sunshine Week, but you wouldn't know it in New Jersey. This week, Gov. Chris Christie’s administration blocked a Democratic lawmaker’s effort to learn hidden details of the Republican’s controversial Exxon Mobil settlement. Separately, the administration also withheld other government documents related to a top Christie aide who went to work for Exxon's New Jersey lobbying firm a few months before the settlement was disclosed.

Two weeks ago, Christie’s appointed attorney general formally announced that the state had agreed to settle its lawsuit against Exxon for widespread contamination at its Bayonne and Linden facilities for just $225 million. The settlement, which was far less than the nearly $8.9 billion the state had been seeking, came when the judge presiding over the case was reportedly set to issue a ruling.

The attorney general said the agreement with Exxon would also cover “relatively minor” natural resource damages at 16 undisclosed “company service stations and other facilities located throughout New Jersey.” According to state Sen. Ray Lesniak, the Democrat who is leading an effort to block the settlement, Christie officials plan to keep those details secret. Lesniak announced Thursday that the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) had rejected his open records request for information about pollution at the other Exxon sites and retail gasoline stations included in the agreement.

http://www.ibtimes.com/christie-administration-wont-give-lawmaker-details-exxon-settlement-1854016