Legislation Heard to Establish NJ as Leader in Electric Vehicles for Clean Energy Future
Trenton, NJ – (December 11, 2018) Yesterday at the State house, a Joint Panel of Assembly Environment and Solid Waste and Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committees convened to take testimony on A-4634, historic legislation to set goals and establish market conditions to jumpstart wide-scale use of plug-in electric vehicles. It is expected that the implementation will have transformative effect on both economic outcomes, as well as environmental and health conditions in our state.
The hearing, chaired by respective committee chairs, Assemblywoman Nancy Pinkin and Assemblyman Dan Benson, both prime sponsors, marks the latest step to advance the bill, part of Governor Phil Murphy’s commitments to a clean energy future. ChargEVC, a coalition of diverse stakeholders including auto dealers, utilities, consumer and equity advocates, environmental and labor organizations and tech companies, has spearheaded the legislation for the electrification of our state’s transportation sector.
In April, Governor Murphy announced that New Jersey was joining the clean-car initiative to bolster the sale of zero-emission vehicles. ChargEVC has worked alongside the Murphy Administration to help educate state decision makers and New Jersey residents on the Governor’s target goal of getting New Jersey on a path to 100 percent clean energy by 2050, including migrating 330,000 cars on the road to electric by 2025, since electric vehicles will play a critical part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Passing this legislation and signing it into law is a critical component of achieving these goals, which are incorporated into the bill. In addition, the legislation provides tools to get there: it directs the utilities to make filings that establish the Essential Charging Public Network and authorizes a rebate program to make electric vehicles more accessible to mainstream customers. Senate bill 2252, which is the companion bill to A-4634, passed the Senate Environment and Energy Committee on October 15, 2018 and awaits a hearing in the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee before being voted on by the full Senate. ChargEVC urges the swift passage of both S-2252 and A-4634 in their respective committees to ensure New Jersey continues to be a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and is a leader in growing this new industry through job creation and economic development opportunities for various industry sectors.
Pam Frank, CEO of ChargEVC focused much of her testimony on the economic case for wide-spread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles in New Jersey.
Frank pointed to the economic benefit to New Jersey from just the additional disposable income of EV drivers who spend “four cents a mile to fuel versus 12 cents a mile to fuel,” which can be poured back into our economy.
Noting the utilities play an important role, in large part as leverage to the private sector, Frank testified that “Private sector money is anxious to invest in this state and in this EV space. . . .we need to figure out the proper balance of just enough public sector to attract the maximum amount of private capital needed.” She referenced one such private investor who also testified at the hearing, Friends Fiduciary, an investment manager serving Quaker organizations across the country who focus on investments and policy solutions that build business sustainability and protect the environment.
Acknowledging the array of electric transportation technology companies supporting passage of the bill, Frank urged that we “understand the place we are in history with respect to the growth of electric mobility. It didn’t take off in the beginning of the 20th century . . . but it is taking off as we speak. Driven by the decrease in energy storage prices – batteries, all of the major manufactures have already spent 100’s of millions of dollars on production lines for these vehicles which will be flooding the market in the next several years. While California has been the center of this market over the last ten years, the many industries that make up this market are looking for the place to plant their East Coast flag.”
New Jersey must grab the historic opportunity to be home to this burgeoning tech sector, or we can expect the business investment to be attracted away by neighboring states.
The ChargEVC “Roadmap for Vehicle Electrification in New Jersey” can be found here.