NJDEP Commits to Adopt Advanced Clean Truck Rule To Electrify Truck Fleet In Next Two Decades

Environment New Jersey

Trenton – Today, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) announced it will propose adopting California’s Advanced Clean Truck rule in April as part of the Protecting Against Climate Threats (NJPACT) stakeholder process. The Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rule is a sales requirement on Class 2b to Class 8 vehicles of all fuel types, meaning a certain percentage of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles sold in New Jersey would have to be zero-emission.

The sales requirements would start in Model Year 2025, slowly ratcheting up until Model Year 2035. NJDEP is also considering a fleet reporting requirement that would help inform future rulemaking, such as a purchase requirement for fleets. At this afternoon’s briefing, NJDEP also announced that it would propose adopting California’s Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Omnibus Rule, establish inspections for Class 2b through Class 5 vehicles, and adopt California’s Cargo Handling Equipment regulation. This announcement comes on the same day that Governor Murphy decided not to sign onto a Memorandum of Understanding to have New Jersey join the regional Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). 

Hayley Berliner, Clean Energy Associate with Environment New Jersey issued the following statement:

“Adopting California’s Advanced Clean Truck rule is a promising step forward in New Jersey’s efforts to reduce climate emissions from the transportation sector. The medium- and heavy-duty sectors emit disproportionately high levels of toxic air pollutants that make New Jerseyans sick and contribute to climate change. We look forward to NJDEP proposing to adopt this rule in April to clean up our air and put New Jersey on track to reach Governor Murphy’s ambitious climate goals and achieve the mandated reductions in the Global Warming Response Act. Toxic pollution from dirty diesel trucks is a public health blight on our state and a source of climate pollutants — we have the technology to electrify our truck fleet and the next decade will be a critical transition.

“We’re happy to see NJDEP Commissioner McCabe and the staff at NJDEP are emphasizing the importance of the medium- and heavy-duty sectors, by proposing an important rule today to start limiting their emissions. We look forward to New Jersey adopting the Advanced Clean Truck rule and working with NJDEP to further limit the state’s transportation emissions.”