Press Releases

Long Branch, NJ --- After reviewing the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy report issued earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), ranking Democrat on the House Fisheries, Conservation, Wildlife and Oceans Subcommittee, today voiced concern over three provisions in the report that would initiate saltwater fishing licenses, change the fisheries management council authority, and exploit the ocean's mineral and other non-living resources.

Long Branch, NJ --- After an investigation completed by an independent environmental firm earlier this month outlined the clean up that should be undertaken at the Middlesex Borough Landfill, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today called on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), a former operator of the land, to pay for the investigation and now the clean up. Pallone made his request in a letter to Michael W. Owen, Director of the Office of Legacy Management at the Energy Department.

Washington, DC--- Nearly 20 years after the Union Carbide Corporation plant in Bhopal leaked 40 tons of lethal gas killing 4,000 people and injuring more than 20,000, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. yesterday held a briefing on Capitol Hill to observe the horror of the disaster with Goldman Environmental Prize winners and Bhopal survivors Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla. Pallone also announced plans to introduce legislation in remembrance of the Bhopal disaster 20 years ago.

With a deadline set for Thursday, April 30 for all public comments on a Bush administration proposal that wo uld weaken mercury regulations under the Clean Air Act, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will host a field hearing this Monday, April 26 at 12:30 p.m. to discuss the public health, environmental, and economic impact that this proposal would have on New Jersey. Pallone will hear testimony from state officials, health care, environmental, fish and wildlife representatives and the public.

Washington, D.C. -- In a letter to President Bush, 169 members of the U.S. House of Representatives today called on the president to recognize the atrocities committed against the Armenian people in 1915 as "genocide" during his annual April 24th c ommemorative statement. To date, no U.S. president has used the term "genocide" to describe the atrocities committed against 1.5 million Armenians.

In the letter, organized by U.S. Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr.

"Thank you Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity this morning to examine the Department of Defense's proposed exemptions from long standing environmental laws in the name of military readiness. I am greatly concerned that while the proposed exemptions are presented as being narrow in scope, the actual implications to public health and environmental health would be sweeping.

Marlboro, NJ --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and author of legislation that would reinstate a Superfund tax that forces polluters to pay for Superfund cleanups rather than taxpayers, issued the following statement today through a spokesman at a public meeting regarding the clean up of the Imperial Oil Superfund Site in Marlboro.

Washington, D.C. --- U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), ranking Democrat on the House Fisheries, Conservation, Wildlife and Ocean Subcommittee, issued the following statement today regarding the release of the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy's long-awaited report detailing the state of the oceans and its resources, and recommendations for a new national ocean policy framework.