Pass Question Two with Strong Support
As the new home of NJPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Jersey can be contacted regarding this news release.
TRENTON—New
Jersey voters delivered a strong mandate to cleanup diesel emissions on November 8, approving Ballot Question Number 2. With 56% percentage of
state-wide ballots tallied, the question received 54% percent of the
vote, with only 46% percent voting against the measure as of 10:20 p.m.
“The
vote tally on Ballot Question 2 confirms what we already know – New
Jersey residents overwhelmingly support cleaning up air pollution,
especially diesel soot. Reducing diesel pollution – one of the most
toxic types of air pollution – will mean more lives saved and less
asthma attacks for all of us,” said Ethan Lavine, NJPIRG’s
Environmental Advocate.
Last
spring, NJPIRG, joined by the New Jersey Environmental Federation, the
New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance and the Sierra Club of New
Jersey worked with legislative sponsors to craft and pass the bill that
put Ballot Question 2 on today’s ballot. The bill and the ballot
measure were also supported by the American Lung Association of NJ, the
New Jersey Education Association, the American Heart Association, the
New Jersey Conference of the NAACP, the March of Dimes and GreenFaith.
“Diesel
exhaust is of particular concern because people are often close to the
sources – the diesel engines in school buses, trucks, other vehicles
and construction equipment,” said Dr. Robert Laumbach, M.D., MPH, CIH,
from the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
In
the days leading up to Election Day, NJPIRG citizen members joined
NJPIRG staff in over 20 locations to get the word out in their towns
about Ballot Question 2 and to urge their neighbors to vote “Yes.”
Michael Richter and Betsy Brotman were among those pounding the
pavement in their downtown areas over the weekend and Election Day.
“It
was great to talk to people in my downtown about Ballot Question 2 –
everyone was supportive of the measure once they learned what it will
do,” said Betsy Brotman, a NJPIRG member from Berkeley Heights. This is
a no-brainer for cleaner air – and it is obvious that voters want to
see our political leaders clean up New Jersey’s pollution.”
NJPIRG
staff and volunteers also manned 10 polling places across the state to
pass out educational literature and urge voters to support the Ballot
Question.
“Voters
appreciated the information and most people we talked to said they
would vote ‘Yes.’ New Jerseyans understand the dangers posed by diesel
exhaust and they want the state to clean up more air pollution,”
continued Lavine. New Jersey leads the nation for the number of
statewide violations of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s smog
and soot standards. New Jersey also has the second highest cancer risk
rate from diesel soot pollution in the nation.
Voter
approval of Question 2 will ensure an estimated $160 million of over
ten years is available to retrofit over 30,000 of the state’s transit
buses, school buses and publicly owned trucks with simple pollution
control technology. Voter approval also ensures funding to support the
DEP’s anti-idling enforcement program and will cover the cost of a
research project conducted by the DEP to examine further steps needed
to protect children from diesel school bus emissions. The clean up plan
would reduce diesel soot emissions by roughly 10 percent over the next
decade, removing over 400 tons of pollution from the air annually.
New
Jersey’s dirty diesel vehicles contribute to the state’s unhealthy
levels of soot pollution. Thirteen of the state’s 21 counties exceed
levels for soot pollution allowed under standards established by the
EPA. The EPA projects that 880 people die prematurely each year from
exposure to diesel soot pollution alone.
“The
soot in our air is making us sick,” concluded Lavine. “Studies show
this again and again. Today, we took the first step in cleaning up
diesel soot and making our state healthier for our children and for
ourselves.”
NJPIRG
and our coalition partners called on both gubernatorial candidates to
pledge support for cleaning up diesel pollution by 75% in the next ten
years if elected Governor. The group Clean Air Task Force released a
research report this spring that found that New Jersey must reduce
diesel soot pollution by 75% to make New Jersey’s air healthy enough
for everyone to breathe. Both Governor–elect Jon Corzine and Doug
Forrester pledged to clean up private diesel trucks but neither
specified the extent of those steps.
More Information About NJPIRG's Campaign To Clean Up Dirty Diesel And Ballot Questions #2
NJPIRG
made raising the public’s awareness of the health risks posed by diesel
pollution a major priority for the last year and won a previous effort
to convince the state to move away from diesel bus purchases under
Governor Whitman.
This
summer, NJPIRG canvassers visited over 150 towns across the state and
spoke to over 150,000 citizens about diesel pollution. NJPIRG advocates
also coordinated the lobbying effort in Trenton to assure passage of
the bill, which was championed by Assemblyman John McKeon and Senate
Bob Smith.
During
the fall, NJPIRG ran a voter education drive that reached several
million residents through television, print media and direct contact
with state residents by phone and in person. Activities included media
events, telephone outreach, leafleting in downtown areas of New Jersey,
editorial board outreach and placement of a video Public Service
Announcement which aired on several Comcast stations, News 12 and
Channel 11.
The
NJ Diesel Pollution Reduction program, now adopted through voter
approval of Ballot Question #2, would lessen the serious toll soot
pollution has on the health of New Jersey residents. A report by
Boston-based Clean Air Task Force – using EPA methodology – attributed
over 800 premature deaths to diesel soot pollution every year in New
Jersey. It also reported that diesel soot pollution is to blame for
over 1,300 heart attacks and 17,000 asthma attacks.
School
buses especially pose a threat to children’s health because school
children spend an average of over an hour on the bus each day, and the
bus cabins act as diesel exhaust incubators, as soot pollution from the
exhaust and the engine floods inside at each bus stop. Clean Air Task
Force and Purdue University researchers, studying diesel school bus
emissions in three cities, showed that school children face diesel
concentrations up to 10 times the amount of outside air quality, which
is already at unhealthy levels.
Though
the diesel clean up plan was signed into law this September, voter
approval was required because it draws from existing revenue in the
Corporate Business Tax earmarked for environmental programs. Approval
shifts 17% of these funds from site remediation spending, and allows a
kick-start appropriation of up to $10 million from an $90 million
surplus for underground storage tanks. The clean up plan will cost
roughly $15.5 million over a 10-year period.
While
Ballot Question #2 was an important first step to cleaning up diesel
pollution, New Jersey must do more to make the air healthy to breathe
again. Research from the Clean Air Task Force recommends that diesel
particle emissions be reduced by 75 percent by 2015 and 85 percent by
2020 to restore the air to a healthy level for everyone to breathe. New
Jersey should adopt these aggressive, yet attainable standards. NJPIRG
has called upon the candidates to adopt health-based standards for
regulating soot pollution in the state if elected.
