Clean Air News

Report Documents Availability, Consumer Demand, For Cleaner Cars

As the new home of NJPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Jersey can be contacted regarding this news release.

TRENTON—On the day after the end of New Jersey's smoggiest summer in recent memory, NJPIRG, environmental groups and a legislator came together to release Ready To Roll, a new report documenting manufacturer readiness and consumer demand for cleaner cars in New Jersey. The new study, researched and written by NJPIRG staff, clearly demonstrates that New Jersey's substantial air pollution problem needs to be solved by passing legislation to adopt the LEV II emissions standards, and that adopting the tighter emissions standards required by the bill will be a simple and in many ways welcome change for New Jersey's car buyers.

"Getting more clean cars on the road is one step toward improving the quality of the air we all breathe," said assemblyman Matt Ahearn (D-Paramus), who is the prime sponsor of the clean air bill in the Assembly. "At the same time, these cars use less gas or even no gas compared to traditional cars. We live in the state with some of the highest cancer rates in the nation, how can we wait any longer to do this and still look at ourselves in the mirror each day?"

Recent studies by NJPIRG and other organizations have documented New Jersey's increasing air pollution and its effects on human health and the environment. In particular, NJPIRG research in the last two years has shown that:

• New Jersey's smog pollution is getting worse not better. Between the years 2000 and 2002 the number of times that New Jersey violated the federal health standard for smog more than tripled. This pollution causes tens of thousands of asthma attacks each year, many of them among children.
• New Jersey's childhood asthma rate has increased dramatically in the last 15 years, and today there are nearly 100,000 asthmatic children in New Jersey. Counties with the highest rates of childhood asthma also have the highest levels of air pollution.
• The average New Jersey resident is exposed to levels of air toxics that are 1,600 times greater than the federal health standard. This exposure to air toxics will cause 13,000 New Jerseyans to develop cancer over the course of their lives, in the absence of all other factors.

"The public health effects of air pollution in New Jersey are staggering," said Michael Calvin of the American Lung Association. "The toxic pollution emitted by our cars and trucks contribute to some of the worst health problems we face in this state: cancer and asthma. Over 100,000 children in New Jersey suffer from asthma, and asthma is the number one health reason children miss school. New Jersey must act now to reduce emissions from cars and trucks."

Passenger vehicles are New Jersey's largest source of both smog forming pollutants and dangerous air toxics. As a result, New Jersey needs address emissions from cars and trucks before it can hope to reduce air pollution and protect public health. NJPIRG research has also indicated that mobile sources like cars and truck are responsible for 80 percent of New Jersey's air toxics and nearly 40 percent of our smog forming pollutants. As a result, passing the clean cars bill would lead to dramatic cuts in these and other types of air pollution. NJPIRG's research also indicates that passing the LEVII emissions standards would lead to 23 percent reductions in air toxics and 19 percent reductions in smog forming pollutants above and beyond what could be achieved by the federal standard in the next 20 years.

"Passing this clean air bill is a public health imperative," said Hudson. "Ready to Roll clearly documents that the solution to New Jersey's air pollution is ready. All that is needed is for the legislature to turn the key and start us rolling down the road to cleaner cars. We need and fully expect the Senate and Assembly to hold hearings on this legislation in the coming weeks."

Ready to Roll finds that the current federal emissions standards are insufficient to reduce air pollution and protect public health in New Jersey. To further reduce air pollution, New Jersey should follow in the footsteps of California, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and New York adopt the LEV II program, which includes the Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) program, which requires manufacturers to produce a small percentage of super clean cars for sale in New Jersey. New Jersey will be eligible to adopt the LEV II program in 2006 and Ready to Roll clearly demonstrates the benefits of adopting the plan as soon as possible, Including:

• 23 percent reductions in air toxics, which cause thousands of new cases of cancer every year.
• 19 percent reductions in smog pollutants which cause tens of thousands of asthma attacks in New Jersey, and which may increase risk of death from stroke or heart attack.
• Enhancing the state economy by encouraging development of high tech businesses, decreasing our susceptibility to oil price shocks and promoting development of clean vehicles within the state.
• Play a substantial role in helping NJ meet minimum health standards under the clean air act, thus allowing federal transportation dollars to continue flowing to the state.

Ready to Roll also finds that major manufacturers are already using the technologies required to meet the LEV II standards, including the ZEV requirement. In fact, all six of the major manufacturers (GM, Ford, DiamlerChrysler, Honda, Toyota and Nissan) are projected to produce, or are already producing vehicles that satisfy the requirements of the ZEV program by 2005. Nearly a half-million alternative fuel vehicles are already on the road nationwide, and thousands of zero emission vehicles have been produced for lease in California in the last several years. The anticipated cost of the ZEV program in its early years represents less than one percent of the automakers annual media spending and net profits. Ready to Roll therefore finds that there is a more than ample supply of zero emissions an near zero emissions cars to meet the ZEV program requirements, and that producing an adequate number of them for New Jersey is a minimal economic burden to the auto industry.

"Our research shows that people want cleaner cars and are even willing to pay more for them in some cases. The failure of the cleanest cars to penetrate New Jersey's market is one of marketing, not demand," said Hudson.

Lastly, Ready to Roll finds that car buyers are more than willing to buy cleaner cars. In fact, consumer demand for these cars has consistently outstripped supply. Across the country, consumers weathered long waiting lists for the first generation of hybrid-electric cars, thousands of which have since been sold in New Jersey. As a result Honda and Toyota have recently announced plans to dramatically increase their production of their hybrid models, and Ford, GM and other manufacturers plan to introduce their own hybrid vehicles in the next 12-24 months. Similar waiting lists exist at almost every California dealership for electric cars, despite higher prices for the vehicles and added complications for leasing them. In polls California electric vehicle owners found that electric vehicles fit better in to their 'real world' driving than they anticipated, have reported high levels of satisfaction with their cars, and recommend them to friends.

"As we close a summer where one out of three days were unhealthy for our children to play outside, it is critically important that New Jersey act quickly to reduce this pollution," said Hudson. "The cars are ready, the drivers are waiting, for our legislator to act.