Landmark Bill To Clean Up
Air Pollution Scheduled For Final Passage Monday
As the new home of NJPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Jersey can be contacted regarding this news release.
TRENTON—Two days after
the near unanimous passage of the Clean Cars Act out of the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, the bill is on the verge of passage by the full Legislature on Monday.
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.
The impending vote 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 third 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.
An amended version of the
bill was voted on and approved by the Senate Thursday with language similar
to the bill voted out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee on the same day.
The amended version creates more flexibility for carmakers 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.
The latest success to pass
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 pass the amended language through the Senate
yesterday.
In the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, after an extensive hearing, the committee passed the bill out with
a strong, bipartisan 10-2 vote. 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), and the Committee Chair Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-15)
all played key roles in yesterday's committee action. Other members of the committee
voting in favor of the bill included 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," Mottola
concluded. "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 will represent
a public health victory for everyone who breathes in this state."
Support_the_NJ_Clean_Cars_Act_Fact_Sheet.pdf