UTCA STATEMENT ON EV MANDATE

Farmingdale – Utility and Transportation Contractors Association (UTCA) Executive Director Dave Rible issued the following statement today regarding the Murphy Administration mandating that by 2035 all newly purchased vehicles in New Jersey must be electric:

“We support utilizing green technologies to combat the impacts of climate change. Our members stand ready, willing and able to use these technologies to deal with these impacts. But today’s action and the pace of that transition is simply incompatible with current infrastructure and economic realities.

“What has occurred across the nation should be a warning sign. The electric bus company Proterra, which existed for nearly two decades, recently filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, unable to overcome the current market difficulties in creating EV’s. Other EV startups, like Lordstown Motors, have also filed for bankruptcy. Today’s action could doom other manufacturers to a similar fate.

“New Jersey is just not ready for this. The infrastructure does not exist, nor does the funding to make that infrastructure a reality. Again, our members stand ready to make it happen should that funding and opportunities happen. Until then, what we need is an approach that most effectively balances our clean energy needs with currently available realities. This does not do that.”

About UTCA

UTCA of New Jersey is a non-profit trade association headquartered in Wall, New Jersey. UTCA represents approximately 1,000 member firms in the public and private sectors, active in all phases of heavy, highway, utility, and marine construction, as well as site work including remediation of brownfields and contaminated sites. For more information, log on to http://www.utcanj.org and follow on Twitter @UTCANJ.

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