For Immediate Release
Contact: Jeff Tittel, NJ Sierra Club, 609-558-9100
President Biden announced a $2 trillion infrastructure package this week that will impact New Jersey. It includes $621 billion for transportation, $650 for affordable housing, schools, water infrastructure, and broadband, and $300 billion for research, development and manufacturing.
“President Biden’s new infrastructure plan will help move New Jersey forward. He wants to invest $2 trillion to move our country forward when it comes to renewable energy, improving our mass transit systems, energy efficiency, and jobs. He is moving forward with ambitious plans to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations, getting lead out of our pipes, and upgrading our electrical grid,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “New Jersey will see many benefits from Biden’s plan, but only if we step up. We need to do more in order to take full advantage of the new administration’s goals and plans.”
The plan includes $80 billion in Amtrak repairs, which could possibly pay for the entire $30 billion Gateway Program. This would include building new Hudson River rail tunnels into New York Penn Station and rehabilitating the 111-year-old ones, replacing the Portal Bridge, and constructing the Bergen Loop in Secaucus. Biden’s plan would increase funding for transportation agencies by $85 billion to ‘modernize and expand’ existing transit
“The plan includes more funding for Amtrak, which could help fund the Gateway Project which includes replacing the Portal Bridge. There is also more funding for state transit agencies. However, we won’t have enough money to put up to qualify for federal funding if NJ Transit keeps robbing capital funds for operations and maintenance,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “We need a stable source of funding for NJ Transit so that we can get federal funding. We need to be buying electric buses, expanding the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Line, and electrifying the South Jersey Light Rail Line.”
The infrastructure package also includes allocating $115 billion to upgrade 20,000 miles of highways, roads, and main streets and $20 billion to improve road safety. It also would fix economically significant bridges and repair the worst 10,000 smaller bridges.
“Biden is going to be fixing old roads and bridges and investing in mass transportation. This will make our roads and bridges safer as well as help reduce traffic and air pollution from idling cars. In New Jersey, we should be raising the Turnpike in the Meadowlands to make it more resilient, not widening it unnecessarily. Biden is actually allocating $20 billion for removing highways while New Jersey is moving forward with unnecessary highway widenings,” said Tittel.“These federal funds could be an important step, but New Jersey needs to step up. We need to adopt a stronger Fix-It-First program so that we can put our money into fixing infrastructure that needs it instead of widening parts of the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway.”
Biden’s plan also includes $650 billion for American homes, school buildings, water infrastructure, and broadband expansion. This includes $213 billion to build, preserve and retroit over 2 million affordable homes and buildings, $111 billion for replacing all lead pipes and service lines, and $100 billion for constructing or modernizing public schools.
“Under Biden’s plan, they will be investing billions of dollars into affordable housing. Meanwhile, New Jersey is actually trying to take $40 million away from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Right now, so many people are in danger of losing their homes or can’t pay for rent. We need to be investing in affordable housing to help people impacted by the pandemic,” said Tittel. “Biden’s proposal also includes replacing all lead service pipes. This is critical in New Jersey, but the state has failed to move forward with any real plans or funding to deal with our lead crisis.”
Earlier this week, President Biden announced a new offshore wind plan with a goal of generating 30 GW of offshore energy by 2030. As part of the announcement, the Department of the Interior will set up ‘Wind Energy Areas’ for offshore wind farms along nearly 800,000 acres off of the coast of New Jersey and New York. The Administration also announced $3 billion in loan guarantees available to offshore wind projects.
“The Biden Administration is also moving offshore wind forward, which will help make wind a reality in New Jersey. They announced a new offshore wind goal of 3,000 MW off of our coast, but right now New Jersey is only aiming for 7,500 MW. BOEM has doubled the area off of our coast for offshore wind leases, so we need to increase our state goal at least to 12,000 MW or more in order to take full advantage of this. Moving forward with offshore wind will help reduce greenhouse gases and stop new fossil fuel projects moving forward in New Jersey and across the country,” said Jeff Tittel. “Biden is also going to offer tax credits for building renewable energy manufacturing facilities like the wind facility in Paulsboro. This could help create more jobs in New Jersey while moving renewable energy forward.”
Since taking office in January, President Biden has signed a series of executive orders and actions that have launched a sweeping rebuke of the Trump administration and begin the process of tackling the climate crisis.
“President Biden is continuing to take important steps forward when it comes to climate change and the environment. All of this federal aid will also help move New Jersey forward, but we need to do more if we’re going to take full advantage of it. Now we can do even more when it comes to offshore wind, energy efficiency, reducing climate impacts, and jumpstarting our economy after Covid,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. “This is a new beginning and we should capitalize on this change. We should be investing in our health, our environment, and our future.”