Landmark Bill Will Clean Up Air Pollution
From The Number One Source
As the new home of NJPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Jersey can be contacted regarding this news release.
TRENTON —The New Jersey
Clean Cars bill is on the governor's desk awaiting his signature after the Senate
and Assembly moved the bill through final passage last night. "Final passage
of this bill represents a public health victory for everyone who breathes the
air in this state," said Dena Mottola, executive director of New Jersey
Public Interest Research Group.
The bill would reduce air
toxics by an additional 23 percent more than the federal emission standards
and smog precursors by 19 percent by 2020 through stricter car emissions standards
and the promotion of cleaner, advanced technology vehicles. The neighboring
states of New York and Massachusetts have already adopted the stricter emissions
control program designed by California, known as the Low Emission Vehicle program,
Phase II (LEV II).
"Here in New Jersey,
everyone breathes air that egregiously exceeds U.S. EPA standards. We don't
have to look any further than the heavy traffic in our own communities and on
the highways that surround us to understand how profoundly automobile emissions
contribute to our state's pollution problem. This bill will start to clear the
air in New Jersey by encouraging carmakers to produce the cleanest cars possible
for New Jersey as early as this year and in increasing numbers over time,"
said Dena Mottola, NJPIRG's executive director.
Passage of the bill comes
on the heels of an announcement last month by the EPA that the entire state
of New Jersey will be officially designated as out of compliance with the agency's
health-based standard for ozone. Additionally, seven of New Jersey's counties
(Hudson-2nd, Camden-8th, Essex-13th, Bergen-9th, Monmouth-14th, Union-20th and
Mercer-23rd) are rated among the 25 worst in the nation for air toxics, a family
of carcinogens emitted primarily by cars and trucks in New Jersey.
"Air pollution amounts to the 3rd most serious public health risk factor
in the state. Only obesity and smoking claim more lives than air pollution every
year. Although cars are the single largest source of unhealthy air pollution,
up until now little has been done to reduce pollution from cars," said
David Pringle of the New Jersey Environmental Federation.
The bill passed both the
Senate (31-5) and Assembly (53-15) with strong bi-partisan support last night.
The legislation is slightly amended from the original bill, providing automobile
makers with more flexibility to reach the goal of selling an estimated 160,000
cleaner, advanced technology cars per year and to produce a small fraction of
pure zero emission cars for New Jersey starting in 2012. The program will not
go into effect until January 1, 2009 but carmakers will receive credits towards
the 2009 requirement for clean cars placed in the state as early as 1999 and
up until 2009. The bill also sets up a Commission, composed of legislators,
state officials, dealers, automakers, public health experts and environmentalists,
to watchdog the state's implementation process and make recommendations to the
Legislature and the DEP on the viability of the program.
"This bill gives the
green light for cleaner air in New Jersey," said Jeff Tittel, director
of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "We have broken out of the traffic jam and
we're going to reduce air pollution and provide carmakers with the flexibility
to get clean cars on the road."
Although the bill won't
mandate manufacturers produce clean cars for New Jersey before 2009, New Jersey
will immediately see the impact of the bill because automakers will want to
start banking credits for the 2009 requirement by placing cleaner advanced technology
cars in New Jersey right now. Hot-selling cars like the Toyota Prius, which
runs on a hybrid gasoline-electric engine, will become more readily available
in the state, and carmakers will likely funnel other cleaner, advanced technology
models to the state as they come on the market. J.D. Power and Associates, an
industry expert, estimated carmakers will have at least 28 models of hybrids
automobiles by 2008, including 18 trucks and SUVs and 10 cars.
Passage of the bill has
been the result of bipartisan efforts in both houses of the Legislature, Governor
McGreevey, who pledged to pass the bill during his election, and DEP Commissioner
Campbell who also lent his support for the bill. In the Senate, Senate Co-President
John Bennett (R-12) as well as co-prime Sponsor Sen. John Adler (D-6) and co-sponsors
Sen. Tom Kean (R-21), Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance (R- 23), Sen. CO-President
Dick Codey (D-27), as well as Senators Andy Ciesla (R-10), Diane Allen (R-7),
Barbara Buono (D-18), Bob Smith (D-17), Shirley Turner (D-15), Steve Sweeney
(D-3), Paul Sarlo (D-36), Joe Vitale (D-19), Bob Singer (R-30), and others worked
to build support for the bill in their respective caucus.
The Assembly bill is sponsored
by Assemblymen Reed Gusciora (D-15), Sean Kean (R-11), Matt Ahearn (Green-38)
and John McKeon (D-27). Speaker Albio Sires (D-33), Majority Leader Joseph Roberts
(D-5), Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D-6), Committee Chair Bonnie Watson-Coleman
(D-15). Members of the Assembly Appropriations Committee who supported the bill
and played key roles in committee action and final passage were Steve Corodemus
(R-11), Rose Heck (R-38), Nellie Pou (D-35), John Burzichelli (D-3), Herb Conaway
(D-7), Mims Hackett (D-27), Fredrick Scalera (D) and Joe Cryan (D-20).
The New Jersey Clean Cars
Alliance, representing the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, the New
Jersey Environmental Federation, the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club,
the American Lung Association and Environmental Defense, has worked hard to
pass the bill over the course of a lengthy two-year campaign.
The bill has faced heavy
lobbying opposition from the automobile and business industry, including the
New Jersey car dealers, the National Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Ford,
GM, Chrysler, New Jersey Petroleum Council, the Chamber of Commerce, the New
Jersey Business and Industry Association, and numerous hired lobbyists.
"The push for cleaner
cars in the state has continually run into a roadblock put up by special interests,
who worked adamantly to prevent the basic right of cleaner air. These attempts
cannot outweigh the significance of this bill—to put New Jersey on the
path to cleaner air by forcing carmakers to produce cleaner and cleaner cars
over time, and directing the car market towards emission free cars in the not-so-distant
future. Final passage of this bill represents a public health victory for everyone
who breathes in this state," Mottola concluded.
