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NJ Clean Car Bill Sparks Controversy
Bill would require New Jersey car dealers to sell cleaner vehicles.

Source: NJ.Com
[Jun 20, 2003]

By PETER HALL
The Express-Times


A bill that environmentalists say would help clean New Jersey's air by requiring car dealers to sell cleaner vehicles is stalled in the Legislature.

Opponents call the legislation a "feel good" bill without any real benefits to the environment. They also say it could have a chilling effect on New Jersey's economy by reducing car sales and leaving dealers with stock they can't move.

Environmentalists say putting more cars on the road that rely on clean fuels or burn less gasoline is a vital step to reducing air pollution in a state that has the worst air quality in the nation. The bill would also prod automakers to make more practical low emissions vehicles.

The bill would require the New Jersey departments of transportation and environmental protection to adopt California's low emission vehicles regulations. Under those standards, certain percentages of the cars sold must be electric, gasoline-electric hybrids or use alternative fuels such as natural gas.

The requirements are tougher than the federal EPA's next-generation auto emissions standards. New York has already adopted California's auto emissions standards and Massachusetts lawmakers are also considering them.

The bill failed to pass the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee Thursday with a 6-6 vote, said state Sen. Leonard Lance who is a member of the committee. The bill was also held Thursday by the Assembly Budget and Appropriations Committee for a vote next week.

Lance said he believes the legislation has strong support in the Senate and will pass easily when it gets out of the committee. He blamed Democratic senators for bowing to pressure from auto industry lobbyists.

He said the auto industry's resistance to innovation is not unusual and, historically is not insurmountable.

"It was thought initially that the American public wouldn't buy vehicles that had seatbelts," Lance said. "Of course now we mandate seatbelts. Seatbelts have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Dirty air kills people as well."

The New Jersey Public Interest Research Group has supported the bill by compiling statistics on air pollution in New Jersey. According to NJPIRG's reports, about 88 percent of the toxic chemicals in New Jersey's air come from cars and trucks.

In Warren County, levels of airborne toxic chemicals such as benzene and styrene produced by vehicle emissions are 890 times greater than the levels deemed acceptable by the EPA. In Hunterdon, those levels are about 1,000 times greater than the federal standards, NJPIRG reports.

Vehicle emissions also contribute to the formation of ozone, a principle component of smog. The ozone monitoring station Flemington recorded 12 days when ozone levels exceeded the federal health standard.

Warren County, which does not have an ozone monitoring station, likely had between 19 and 27 days when the ozone level exceeded standards based on measurements taken in surrounding counties, NJPIRG says.

Those levels of pollution have a devastating effect on children, the elderly and other people susceptible to respiratory ailments, NJPIRG says.

But the impact of the California emissions standards on New Jersey air pollution would be negligible, said Assemblywoman Connie Myers, R-Hunterdon/Warren.

"If you look at the data for the EPA standards and the data for the California standards, there's just not much difference," she said.

Myers said the potential for harm to New Jersey's economy outweighs what little benefit there would be. She voted against the bill when it came before the Assembly environment committee in March.

"No one could answer me on what will happen to these cars if no one can sell them," she said.

The main problem with requiring car dealers to sell more zero emissions cars is that there is no demand for them, said Jim Appleton, president of New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers.

"The zero emission vehicle that is available today is a glorified golf cart. I don't envision that vehicle being driven at exit 14 of the NJ Turnpike with 80,000 pound tractor-trailers six feet from the bumper," Appleton said.

The California emissions standards would require two percent, of all cars sold each year -- about 10,000 in New Jersey -- to be zero emissions vehicles by 2008.

"Unless there is some real marketplace incentive to get those vehicles off the lot, the air doesn't get any cleaner," Appleton said.

Other zero emissions vehicles like compressed natural gas and hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars aren't viable because the infrastructure necessary to fuel them doesn't exist, he said.

Hybrid vehicles, which pair a small gasoline engine with electric motors to dramatically boost fuel economy appear to be the way of the future, he said.

Demand for hybrid vehicles marketed by Honda and Toyota already outstrips the supply. DaimlerChrysler and Toyota have plans to introduce hybrid sport utility vehicles soon, but automakers need to do more to meet the demand, Appleton said.

That would be using the power of the marketplace to clean up the environment, he said.