And here I thought Thursday’s Princeton Regional Chamber lunch might be calm and uncontroversial. Bob Martin, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, is slated to speak on how he has been making New Jersey more business friendly under the Republican administration.

Martin (Boston College, ’79 with an MBA from George Washington) has been a partner at the world’s largest tech consulting company, Accenture, where he focused on energy and utility companies. He came to his office promising to apply business principles to the job.

Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Lisa Jackson (undergraduate degree from Tulane, master’s from Princeton), the federal EPA administrator, is making headlines by her determination to unwarm the globe with firm regulations on everything from smog to mercury. See today’s New York Times, “EPA Chief Stands Firm as Tough Rules Loom.”

Jackson used to have Martin’s state job. Are she and Martin going toe to toe?

I haven’t been following it, frankly. The only thing I have a definite hard-nosed opinion about is fracking, and I strongly oppose fracking. So I’ll be interested to hear what Martin says.

(I took blogger’s license to use a photo of the Northern Spotted Owl form the Resource Clearinghouse website. I don’t know if Jackson’s regulations or Martin’s purported business friendliness involve such controversial characters as the Spotted Owl, protected for the past decade, but pictures of owls are cuter than pictures of smog.)

After the exciting fireworks, comes the nitty gritty of just what does our freedom mean? President Obama has called for a national discussion on the thorny topic of immigration. Tonight (Tuesday, July 5) the Princeton Public Library will host just such a discussion at 6:30 p.m. Join the conversation to help come up with a bipartisan recommendation to the White House.

“We will hear from representatives of the major social sectors (education, health care, public safety, faith-based, business and public policy). The results will be transmitted to the White House,” says Maria (Charo) Juego of the Latin American Legal Defense Fund.

Pre-registration is requested (E-mail info@LALDEF.org) but at this late date, just show up. The event is co-sponsored by the Latin American Legal Defense Fund, YWCA Princeton, the Princeton Public Library, and Not in Our Town Princeton.