What's New
In November 2005, New Jersey voters strongly supported Ballot Question 2 to
clean up dirty diesel pollution across the state. The Ballot Question allocated dedicated environmental monies to fund the clean-up plan,
and will clean up the state’s entire fleet of school buses, transit
buses, garbage trucks and private transit buses. The measure will
reduce up to 400 tons of diesel soot pollution a year—roughly about
10 percent of diesel pollution. Environment New Jersey spearheaded a grassroots voter
education campaign with our members by canvassing key downtown areas
and polling spots on Election Day, running video public service announcements and doing extensive press outreach. Environment New Jersey called on then gubernatorial candidate Jon Corzine to pledge to reduce diesel emissions by 75 percent
over the next decade during the campaign. Gov. Corzine did
not commit to that reduction, but he did pledge to clean up private
diesel trucks.
How You Can Help
New Jerseyans should not be exposed to unhealthy soot pollutant while they
are participating in the activities of daily life. The technology exists to
replace diesel engines, and technology to make them much cleaner is simple to
apply.
E-mail Governor Corzine and ask him to sign an Executive Order that requires
all diesel trucks and construction equipment to install simple pollution traps
making them 90 percent cleaner.
Brief Summary
In January 2004, Environment New Jersey successfully convinced the New Jersey Legislature to pass the New Jersey Clean Cars Act which will clean up air pollution in New Jersey by reducing
automobile emissions, particularly smog-forming chemicals and air toxics emitted
by automobiles.
However, while we taken a big step towards reducing air pollution from cars,
we still need to address soot pollution from diesel trucks, construction vehicles
and school buses. Diesel exhaust is responsible for emitting a type of pollution
known commonly as soot-small particles that lodge into lung tissue and cause
a whole host of health problems. Thirteen counties in the state are out of compliance
with soot pollution standards—and we only monitor in thirteen counties. Urban
areas suffer from diesel "hot spots" and the state's fleet of 16,000 diesel
school buses expose school children every day to levels of soot pollution that
are up to 10 times the amount of soot outside the bus.
To help the state reach a health-based standard, we need to reduce the amount
of soot pollution from on-road and off-road diesel vehicles. Fortunately, there
is off-the-shelf technology that right now can reduce diesel pollution by over
90 percent. Using a combination of ultra low sulfur diesel fuel and diesel particulate
filters, we can clean up the state's fleet of school buses and publicly owned
vehicles. It is critical that private industry follows suit because new engines
will be on the road for an average of another 30 years or so, and cleaning up
private diesel trucks and buses will ultimately allow us to reach a health-based
standard of air quality.
