A new poll sends a strong message to policy makers. Fully two thirds of voters surveyed for a new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll do not view natural gas as clean energy — that’s a 23 percent increase since 2016. It also shows three-quarters want New Jersey to achieve a goal of 100 percent of renewable energy by 2050. The state’s enlisting the public in crafting its new energy master plan at a hearing that drilled down on transportation technology. Andrew Schmertz has this report on Peril and Promise: The challenge of climate change.
By 2025, one in seven cars on New Jersey’s roads must be zero-emission electric vehicles. A government commission known as the Energy Master Plan Committee heard from a range of groups Thursday on how to meet that goal, which some say has been stalled since the 2004 Clean Car Program passed.
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Thousands of charging stations still need to be built to reduce what’s known as range anxiety among EV drivers. For some who testified, the issue goes beyond electric cars.
“There are vast health disparities between environmental justice communities, specifically communities of color, as compared to suburban communities from air pollution and we should really be prioritizing our children within this,” said Henry Gajda, public policy associate at the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters.
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