By Bill Beren • Transportation Committee Chair
This spring, the Transportation Committee in conjunction with Clean Cities Coalition sponsored two electric school bus road shows. These were held in Atlantic and Hudson counties and hosted by the Atlantic County Utilities Authority and Hudson County Improvement Authority, respectively.
The Hudson County event featured over 10 different kinds of electric utility vehicles owned and operated by the county, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the Jersey City school district, and private vendors. These included electric school buses and diesel school buses converted to electric battery power, cherry pickers, street sweepers, vans, and electric passenger cars.
A major victory was achieved when the legislature approved a bill to allocate $15 million to fund the first year of the Electric School Bus Program Act as part of the 2024 fiscal year budget. The act was originally signed into law by Gov. Murphy in August 2022, but due to a technical issue the funds for the program were not actually allocated to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The appropriations bill is still pending the governor’s signature as this newsletter goes to press. The Chaper urges the governor to move forward with the allocation of funds to the DEP so the program can begin.
A major new electric vehicle incentive was announced by the Internal Revenue Service. School districts and other local and state government agencies can now take advantage of tax credits up to a maximum of $40,000 when buying electric school buses and other vehicles. Previously, these tax credits could be used only by private companies to offset their tax liability. Now, under a program called Direct Pay, government agencies and other nonprofit organizations can get a cash payment equal to the value of the tax credit. The IRS is working on the rules and the forms needed to apply for the credit, which can be claimed for investments in electric vehicles made starting in calendar year 2023.
NJ Transit’s Sustainability Plan
The Sierra Club submitted comments critical of the draft Sustainability Plan issued by NJ Transit. The Club criticized the lack of details in the plan, calling the document “woefully inadequate, especially when compared with sustainability plans prepared by sister transit agencies. The plan as presented is merely a statement of goals and broad objectives” without any specific targets, such as a detailed schedule for purchasing electric transit buses, or deadlines for achieving any of the plan’s goals.
The Chapter’s comments included a detailed analysis of sustainability plans for other transit properties, including AC Transit in Northern California and Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District in Illinois. A copy of our comments is posted on our website.
Although it is unlikely that NJ Transit will make major changes to the plan before adoption, the Chapter is committed to working with NJ Transit to accelerate their sustainability plans.
Advanced Clean Truck and Advanced Clean Cars II
After much concern that New Jersey would miss a critical deadline for publishing its Advanced Clean Cars II rules, the draft rules were published in the August 21 New Jersey Register, starting a public comment period that will end on October 20, 2023. This would allow the governor to formally adopt the rules in December, making them apply to the 2025 model year.
Our Club director, Anjuli Ramos-Busot, was quoted in the official press release as follows: “The Advanced Clean Car II program is one of the most important policies for New Jersey to adopt.… The faster the state makes its commitment to achieve 100% sales of new zero emission vehicles, the easier our transition and the greater the consumer choice. The Advanced Clean Cars II targets in New Jersey can help build and maintain market leadership, which is critical to growing jobs. We thank the NJ Department of Environmental Protection and Gov. Murphy for moving forward on this important rule, and we are eager to see it adopted before the end of the year.”
Electric Car Incentives
Also included in the 2024 budget is an additional $30 million to restart the popular electric vehicle incentives, which were halted in April after all funds were committed. Tellingly, the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU), which administers these incentives, did not increase funding even though last year’s money did not meet demand and electric vehicle sales are increasing.
The BPU also reduced the maximum incentive to $1,500 per car from $2,000 per car for vehicles costing $45,000 to $55,000. Federal incentives remain at a maximum of $7,500, but the number of eligible car models are severely limited by buy-American limitations imposed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
A summary of all the available state, federal, and utility incentives for purchasing an electric car and a charging station can be found at our website.