E Day at the State House

Trenton, NJ – New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee today is considering three vitally important issues – a constitutional amendment that provides greater environmental protections, jump starting electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and purchases, and banning frack waste import, storage and treatment.

Clean Water Action says pass the constitutional amendment, jump start EV, and put the frack bill on hold. Clean Water Action, as a member of ElectrifyNJ, is also participating in the Electric Avenue event being held outside the State House where lead bill sponsors will speak and EV drive/ride opportunities will be available in passenger cars and a bus.

GREEN AMENDMENT

To obtain the highest level of environmental protection in New Jersey, ACR85 and SCR134, aka the Green Amendment, must pass through the State Assembly and Senate respectively before going directly to the voters on the next (2019) November ballot. It is ultimately the voters who decide whether or not their right to pure water, clean air and a healthy environment will be protected in the future by the state constitution.

“A constitutional green amendment is long overdue. You should not have to worry about the air you breathe or the water you drink regardless of what zip code you live in, how much money you make or the color of your skin,” stated Amy Goldsmith, NJ State Director, Clean Water Action. “This Green Amendment is a civil rights, not just an environmental, issue. It gives New Jersey a legally enforceable tool against polluters and the harm caused by the cumulative impacts of toxics that low income areas and communities of color are disproportionately exposed to everyday. That’s environmental justice.”

The Senate Environmental and Energy Committee should vote YES for SCR134 as put forth by its bipartisan co-prime sponsors Greenstein and Bateman.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Under Senator Bob Smith’s leadership, the committee is taking bold steps to jumpstart EV infrastructure and purchases in the Garden State. Clean Water Action urges speedy passage of S2252 (Smith/Greenstein). It would establish a rebate program to incentivize EV light duty vehicle purchases, as well as strategically place fast charge (20 minutes to 1 hour) and Level 2 (3 to 4 hours) charging stations throughout the state.

The transportation sector accounts for 42 percent of New Jersey’s greenhouse gases (GHG) with electric power generation far behind in 2nd place at 16 percent. Vehicle emissions are the primary reason why New Jersey has long violated the federal Clean Air Act, i.e. non-attainment of ozone standards.

Vehicle exhaust also accounts for most of the state’s generation of ozone precursors (NOx and volatile organic compounds, VOCs) which combine in the presence of sunlight, creating ozone, better known as smog. Ozone along with other vehicle emission co-pollutants including, but not limited to particulate matter, black carbon, carcinogens and heavy metals cause health harms especially for our most vulnerable children and elderly.

This increases the cost of health care, school absenteeism, urban heat island temperatures (already 10 degrees F higher in cities than nearby suburbs), as well as cancer, mortality, asthma and other illness rates.

“Clean Water Action calls for the deliberate and aggressive targeting of funds, incentives, fast chargers and EV purchases for urban fleets, ride share options, buses and trucks used in goods movement in environmental justice communities like mine,” stated Kim Gaddy, Environmental Justice Organizer, Clean Water Action. “I am a 4th generation Newarker with three asthmatic children. My family and neighbors feel the impacts of heavy traffic in our lungs every day. Energy Equity is what Clean Water Action is seeking. It is long overdue.”

FRACKING

Frack action is needed in New Jersey; but Clean Water Action urges the State House to first focus on stopping the Delaware River Basin Commission’s (DRBC) weakening rule proposal from being adopted and putting over 17 million people’s drinking water at risk. The DRBC rules as proposed and if adopted would lift the current basin-wide moratorium on fracking, allow waste water processing and extraction of water for fracking in Pennsylvania (as no other state in the basin is currently fracking gas).

Fracking and its waste pose known threats to public safety and health, drinking water and ecological systems. The NJ legislature understood this and passed a comprehensive ban on fracking waste twice before – only to be vetoed by then Governor Christie in 2012 and 2014.

Unfortunately, it subsequently passed a 2018 bill that would allow fracking and other hazardous wastes to be processed at Chemours (formerly Dupont) facility in South Jersey.

The frack waste bill (S678/A1329) now before the NJ legislature while laudable in its language to ban the import, treatment and storage of fracking waste, it diverts attention from where it’s urgently needed – DRBC’s rulemaking debate.

“The governor alone has the power to direct his representative on the DRBC to vote “NO” on the proposed weaker rule change,” stated Amy Goldsmith, NJ State Director, Clean Water Action. “The legislature should send a formal message to the governor to take the first step in stopping future fracking, waste processing and water extraction in the basin. Governor Murphy should stand strong due to the backing of thousands of New Jerseyans across the state who through Clean Water Action’s door to door canvass took the time to write letters telling him to VOTE NO to DRBC’s faulty fracking rule proposal.”

By working together, the legislature and governor’s office can set a proper course for New Jersey establishing permanent environmental rights, electrifying transportation systems and protecting the Delaware Basin.

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Since our founding during the campaign to pass the landmark Clean Water Act in 1972, Clean Water Action has worked to win strong health and environmental protections by bringing issue expertise, solution-oriented thinking and people power to the table. Clean Water Action has more than 100,000 members in New Jersey. www.cleanwater.org/nj