The New Jersey Economic Development Authority is opening applications on April 6 for a $15 million rebate pilot program meant to cover the costs for Camden and Newark-based businesses to buy and use electric trucks.
Known formally as the New Jersey Zero-Emission Incentive Program, the aim is to provide between 100 and 300 vouchers for the purchase of medium and heavy-duty electric trucks.
Under the pilot program, vouchers would come in at between $25,000 and $100,000 for businesses and industrial organizations in either city, with bonuses for women, minority and veteran-owned organizations
Eligibility is limited to businesses located within 10 miles of either city, which house some of the nation’s busiest ports.
Proponents like environmentalist groups contend that Camden and Newark’s residents have been among the hardest hit by truck emissions, and so their focus for the initial stages of NJZIP makes the most sense.
“Diesel trucks are about ten times dirtier than gasoline cars due to the high levels of toxic pollutants that they emit,” reads a January statement from Haley Berliner, a clean energy associate with Environment New Jersey. “For this reason, it is crucial that we prioritize electrifying dirty diesel trucks, especially in environmental justice communities.”
The $15 million pilot program marks an effort by the Murphy administration to switch away from greenhouse gases and towards an economy based on green and renewable energy.
“Climate change presents both challenges and opportunities for the interconnected issues of environmental justice and economic development,” Jane Cohen, executive director of the New Jersey Council on the Green Economy, and the overarching Office of Climate Action, said in a Feb. 24 statement.
The NJZIP funding is part of a much larger $100 million pot of money for a statewide electric vehicle program, financed through a combination of funds from the Volkswagen emissions settlement and the state’s revenue from the recently re-joined multi-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Broken down, those funds include $36 million toward the electrifying port, cargo-handling and other typical carbon-producing medium and heavy-duty equipment; $15 million toward NJ Transit electric buses, $9 million toward electric garbage and delivery trucks in low-income neighborhoods; $13 million toward electric school buses in low-income neighborhoods; $5 million toward electrification of ridesharing services; and $5 million toward 27 fast-charging stations across the state.
“Trucks and buses are major sources of harmful air pollutants, including greenhouse gases. Electrifying this sector offers the biggest benefit to our communities and children who deserve to breathe cleaner, healthier air,” Mary Barber, who heads regulatory and legislative affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund, said in a Feb. 16 statement.
