New Jersey legislators backed bills Monday that would create a $45 million electric school bus pilot program, recommend that Gov. Phil Murphy place a moratorium on fossil fuel projects and enshrine the state’s 2019 Energy Master Plan into law, as the state’s fall legislative sessions surged ahead.

The five-member Senate Environment and Energy Committee voted unanimously in favor of spending $15 million a year for three years to enable 18 school districts to replace diesel vehicles with electric buses in a program designed to evaluate the performance and efficiency of the buses.

The hearing marked the start of the second week of legislative activity in the state after lawmakers took a five-month break for the summer and the election season. Legislation introduced in the current session has to be enacted by the time the next session begins in mid-January or be refiled and start the process again.

The bill (S5077) provides an alternative to less expansive legislation that would set up a $10 million pilot program in three school districts. That bill has advanced slowly, but state officials and environmentalists are increasingly focusing on how to jumpstart the use of electric buses to cut emissions and protect school children from diesel fumes. (See NJ Floats New Electric Bus Plan.)

Testifying in support of the school bus bill, Pam Frank, CEO of ChargEVC-NJ, an advocacy group that champions electric vehicle policies, recalled that about three years ago she attended a state government task force meeting at which the 70 or more people present agreed that the state should embrace electric school buses. Yet there are still none on state roads, and only 77 on order, she said.

“We’re way behind,” said Frank, who expressed concern that a three-year pilot would impede the advance of non-pilot ventures.

William Beren, transportation chairman for the Sierra Club’s New Jersey Chapter, said legislators should make sure the funds are available in June so that the buses can be ready for the next school year.

“We simply cannot afford to waste any more time,” he said.

Heavy Vehicle Focus

New Jersey’s focus on school buses is part of the state’s effort to cut carbon emissions by introducing more EVs into the transportation sector, which accounts for 42% of the state’s emissions. A key element of the state’s strategy is to promote the use of electric medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses through incentives, grants and state rules that require truck manufacturers to meet EV sales goals. The state also has sought to reduce range anxiety by boosting the number of available electric chargers. (See Murphy Toughens NJ Emission-reduction Goals.)

The Environment and Energy Committee also advanced a bill that called on Murphy to “impose an immediate moratorium on fossil fuel infrastructure projects” to help cut emissions. The bill, which does no more than make a recommendation to Murphy, said the moratorium should stay in place until the state cuts its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% below 2006 levels.

Sen. Bob Smith (D), the committee chairman, told the hearing that he has drafted a bill for discussion in the next legislative session that, rather than making a recommendation, would require that when fossil fuel electricity plants are replaced the successor is a renewable facility.

Master Plan

In the Assembly, the Environment and Solid Waste Committee approved a bill (S3667) by a 3-2 vote that would put into law the state’s 2019 Energy Master Plan, rather than leaving it simply as an executive order. The senate passed the bill 25-13 in June, and approval by the Assembly would put it on the governor’s desk.

At the time of the Senate vote, the bill provided a way of ensuring that Murphy’s aggressive clean energy goals would stay in place even if he lost his re-election fight on Nov. 2. Murphy won re-election with a 2.9% margin against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a far closer result than many observers anticipated.

The original bill would codify key planks of the Master Plan, including the goal of putting 330,000 light-duty vehicles on state roads by 2025. Other parts of the bill would require the state’s mass transit agency, New Jersey Transit, to operate at least one battery-powered train by 2025 and that New Jersey generate 7.5 GW of offshore wind by 2035. The committee amended some parts Monday, but no details were available.

Assemblyman John F. McKeon (D), speaking before he voted to support the bill, said the floods and devastation wreaked by Hurricane Ida in September demonstrated the need for the state to act on climate change.

“The proof is now in [front of] our eyes. I don’t know if this gets us [to a solution] quicker,” he said of the bill. “But I think that this sets a standard as to what we’re going to do and makes it more difficult in the future to move the ball backwards.”

Business Opposition

Yet one of the state’s biggest business advocacy groups was not convinced. Raymond Cantor, government affairs vice president for the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA), said the state Master Plan is “problematic” and should not be codified into law, in part because the models used to compile it were unreliable. Cantor also said some goals in the plan are unattainable, such as getting 35% of the state’s energy from renewables by 2025.

He said NJBIA tried — so far unsuccessfully — to get the bill amended so it requires that the goals be affordable for taxpayers and that they would make the grid reliable. “If those two factors are not in this bill, then it says a lot about what the impact of this bill really is,” he said.

Debra Coyle McFadden, executive director of the New Jersey Work Environment Council Board, an alliance of labor, community and environmental organizations, told the committee that the bill is “moving too fast” and needs to be refined.

“One piece that’s really missing here is as we transition away from fossil fuel, what is going to happen to those workers and those communities?” she asked. “There has been no addressing what’s going to happen. No worker should be left behind. We need to have retraining; there are several things that we need to do for workers. And that’s just not in here.”