Tell NJ Legislators: Do Not Delay Critical Advanced Clean Trucks Program!

New Jersey has more highway per square mile than any other state in the country. Large populations, typically low-income or communities of color, are densely clustered within and downwind from major highways, roads, ports, railyards, and warehouses, where they are chronically exposed to high levels of toxic diesel pollution. ACT was developed as a life-saving standard to be phased in over time and to address devastating truck pollution, a significant source of climate and health-harming emissions.

In April 2021, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) proposed the ACT program along with a Fleet Reporting Requirement, which requires manufacturers to sell gradually increasing percentages of zero-emission trucks. In December 2021, the DEP formally adopted the ACT Program.

The implementation of the Advanced Clean Trucks standards is set to begin on January 1, 2025. However, industry players operating in bad faith are manufacturing a false crisis claiming they can not comply with the regulations as written in the hopes of pressuring state regulators to delay implementation or pull out of the program altogether.

Now, unfortunately, state legislators are trying to advance legislation to delay ACT for two years! However, NJ is in fact ready to start implementation. The NJDEP has been working hard since rule adoption back in 2021 to get to this stage, the official implementation.

We do not have two years to wait to take action on mitigating the climate and co-pollutants emitted from the trucking industry in New Jersey. Communities’ wellbeing and lives are on the line.

Join us and send a message NOW to Senate and Assembly leadership and Transportation Committees telling them to continue to advance ACT, and not delay this life-saving program because of bad faith actors in the trucking industry!

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Do Not Delay Life-Saving Advanced Clean Trucks Program for New Jersey!

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Do not delay the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT) Program for New Jersey! ACT is a life-saving standard to be phased in over time and to address devastating truck pollution, a significant source of climate and health-harming emissions. New Jersey has more highway per square mile than any other state in the country. In 2023 alone, diesel pollution in the state of New Jersey is estimated to have caused nearly $3.8 billion in monetized health damages, including more than 300 lives lost. Nationwide, people of color and low-income communities have disproportionately high exposure to diesel exhaust. This is not just an environmental issue, but a public health and social justice issue. We do not have two years to wait to take action on mitigating the climate and co-pollutants emitted from the trucking industry in New Jersey. Communities’ wellbeing and lives are on the line. The false claim by the trucking industry that they cannot comply with ACT is disingenuous given that the standards first passed in June of 2020 in California, giving the industry four and a half years to start to manufacture cleaner trucks in a slow and phased in approach that the rule allows for and to use credits to comply in the early years of the standards when vehicles and engines may not yet be available. Here in NJ, since rule adoption back in December of 2021, the NJDEP has been working hard to get to this stage, the official implementation. NJ is ready. Multiple states have successfully adopted these rules. The faster the market for clean trucks expands, the faster they get cheaper, and the faster the national fleet gets cleaner. We cannot afford to delay this critical Program, and we urge you to continue towards a January 1, 2025 adoption for the sake of New Jersey communities!

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