Legislative Letter To Support Budget Resolution To Fund NJ Transit Bus Electrification

May 16, 2024

Dear Legislator,

On behalf of the Jersey Renews Coalition, thank you for your previous efforts to act on climate change and promote clean energy. However, like other Administrations, Governor Murphy’s proposed FY25 Budget continues to rely on the practice of raiding the Clean Energy Fund to plug gaps in NJ Transit’s operating budget. While we recognize the challenges of realizing a future for stable, dedicated, and sustained funding for the Garden State’s transit agency, the Clean Energy Fund must be used for its intended purposes. Diverting these legislatively dedicated funds will stymie New Jersey’s ability to generate good well-paying jobs, protect vulnerable communities, and meet climate policy goals – including critical NJ Transit electrification projects that need capital dollar investment.

Jersey Renews & more than 35 supporting organizations, representing labor, business, faith, and environmental organizations, would be grateful for your advance support of a Senate Budget Resolution which will ensure NJ Clean Energy Fund monies directed to NJ TRANSIT are spent on capital expenditures to electrify NJ TRANSIT’s bus fleet and infrastructure to meet the goals outlined in P.L.2019, c.362 and in NJ Transit’s recently released Sustainability Plan.

More than 4 years ago, P.L.2019, c.362 established requirements for NJ TRANSIT to move toward zero-emission bus purchases by 2032. Specifically, all NJ TRANSIT bus purchases made on or after December 2024 must include at least 10 percent zero-emission buses, escalating to 50 percent by December 2026, and 100 percent by December 2032. To date, NJ is woefully behind on meeting these goals, but the Clean Energy Fund is a vital tool to support the transition to renewable energy and must help get us back on track.

Additionally, NJ TRANSIT estimated in its 2020 capital plan that it will take approximately $5.7 billion to replace its entire diesel bus fleet and that a 100-percent fleet transition will not be achieved until 2040, eight years past NJ Transit’s original goal. According to a report by New Jersey Policy Perspective, the agency also only plans to dedicate a small percentage of the amount needed to achieve this goal, almost certainly ensuring it will not meet its 2032 target. To fully electrify our bus fleet, the agency will need additional funding, and has not identified a source for the full $5.7 billion.

Electric buses do not produce any emissions at the tailpipe and must be prioritized for use in low-income, urban, or environmental justice communities. The rollout of the eight electric NJ TRANSIT buses in Camden, housed at the Newton Avenue Garage, has been a success, both for the investments for electric charging infrastructure at the bus garage and for the field performance and customer and driver favorable feedback. And there have been successful federal grants received from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for bus electrification including $44.6 million to rebuild the shuttered Union City Bus Garage as well as $68.1 million to modernize the Hilton Bus Garage in Maplewood, close to the Newark border. But without dedicated State capital dollars for bus electrification, these projects can’t move forward.

The Clean Energy Fund must be utilized to meet the challenges posed by climate change, including public health disparities, concentrated particularly in our cities. Residents exposed to greater levels of air pollution, which consistently fall along race and class lines, are disproportionately burdened with detrimental health impacts that Clean Energy Fund investments are meant to address. And the tailpipe emissions from our current diesel bus fleet fall directly as an additional public health burden on resident lungs, especially in our cities. A Columbia University study that analyzed the electrification of MTA buses concluded that the annual public health benefits of electrifying one transit bus was more than $150,000.

The Clean Energy Fund receives about $344 million per year, which is paid by ratepayers. It is imperative that the money goes back to ratepayers in the form of cleaner electricity, lower electricity rates, and air pollution improvements. Ensuring Clean Energy Fund dollars are used appropriately in the FY25 budget is critical to expand a wide range of programs to reduce air pollution, develop clean and renewable sources of energy, lower rates, and create good, family- sustaining jobs.

The proposed FY25 Budget will raid $70 million from the Clean Energy Fund to support New Jersey Transit’s operating budget. The amount raided by current and former administrations now totals over $2 billion. We are simply asking that the State meet its obligations and direct funding where it is legislatively intended, to electrify and clean up NJ TRANSIT’s fleet.  Of course, New Jersey Transit should be fully funded and supported through a dedicated and stable funding source. However, the Clean Energy Fund is not the appropriate way to do so.

We must invest in the health of the State’s residents and promote a more affordable and clean energy future.

We would greatly appreciate your advance support of this Budget Resolution.  Thank you for your consideration of this critically important environmental, public health, and budgetary issue.

Sincerely,

32 BJ SEIU

Action Together New Jersey

AFT New Jersey

BlueWave NJ

Ceres

Clean Water Action

Clinicians for Climate Action New Jersey

ECOS

Elected Officials To Protect America

Environmental Defense Fund

Environmental & Climate Justice Committee, NAACP

Environment New Jersey

GreenFaith

Health Professionals Allied Employees (HPAE)

Hugo Neu Corporation

Isles Inc.

Jersey Renews

Latino Action Network Fund

MnM Consulting

Newark Green Team

New Earth LLC

New Jersey Citizen Action

New Jersey League of Conservation Voters

New Jersey Policy Perspective

New Jersey Public Interest Research Group

New Jersey Sierra Club

New Jersey State Nurses Association

New Jersey Sustainable Business Council

New Jersey Work Environment Council

New Jersey Working Families Alliance

NY/NJ Baykeeper

M & E Engineers

Sanctuary Foundation for Veterans

South Ward Environmental Justice Alliance

Tri-State Transportation Campaign

Unitarian Universalists Faith Action NJ

Vote Solar

Waterspirit

Waterfront Alliance

Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center