As New York and New Jersey transition to electric vehicles, consumers have mixed feelings about it.
Polls show fewer than half of New York drivers would buy an EV as their next vehicle. The number increases for New Jersey drivers, who feel phasing out gas-powered cars can improve air quality.
W. Reed Gusciora, mayor of Trenton, said more electric vehicles on the road mean cleaner air and fewer health issues.
“Families are suffering from higher rates of asthma and heart disease, and other health issues directly linked to air pollution,” Gusciora pointed out. “The transition to electric vehicles offer a lifeline significantly reducing the pollutants that compromise the air we breathe.”
The city recently announced it has high levels of lead in the soil, which Gusciora attributes to air pollution. The American Lung Association ranks Mercer County, where Trenton is located, as one of the worst in the state for air quality.
Reports showed transitioning to EVs can reduce deaths in the state and create $36 billion in public health benefits.
New Jersey and New York are transitioning to renewable energy sources, predominantly offshore wind.
New Jersey Asm. Carol Murphy, D-Mount Laurel, said along with the jobs offshore wind creates, implementing it creates more sustainable transportation.
“Not only does offshore wind provide the jobs and the necessary health benefits that provide us to live not only on the shores,” Murphy noted. “But in many of our communities once we see the impact of offshore wind being able to have on our vehicles, and be able to see the power that is going to generate.”
Some studies showed electric vehicles can reduce pollution in environmental justice communities.
Kaleem Shabazz, a council member in Atlantic City, said the city is introducing measures to reduce the climate effects residents face.
“We are revamping our parking lots to have EV chargers,” Shabazz outlined. “We purchased electric vehicles for our city fleet. We are working in conjunction with city government to do an audit on energy buildings in our city.”
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State lawmakers are considering a bill which would require two public pension systems to pull about $15 billion in combined investments from the fossil-fuel industry by 2031.
Senate Bill 252 would affect the California Public Employee Retirement System, called CalPERS, and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, or CalSTRS.
Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, a co-sponsor of the bill, said divestment is a moral imperative.
“We cannot leave our kids with climate risks,” Gonzalez emphasized. “I see the impacts every day. I see the pollution in my neighborhood, the asthma and respiratory illnesses, all of it.”
CalPERS’ governing board opposes the measure, arguing its first responsibility is to maximize returns and the companies would find other, less socially conscious investors. Last November, CalPERS released a summary of a plan to move the portfolio toward net-zero by 2050, where carbon emissions from investments are evenly balanced with carbon reductions.
The bill has passed the state Senate and is now before the Assembly Committee on Public Employment and Retirement.
Gonzalez argued it is fiscally irresponsible to invest pension funds in companies such as Exxon, Chevron, BP and ConocoPhillips, calling them some of the state’s largest polluters.
“It’s a volatile commodity,” Gonzalez pointed out. “We know that it’s also on its way to being divested across the globe. We don’t want to leave pensioners with these stranded assets and horrible risks financially down the road.”
Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Vermont are among the states already moving to divest their pension funds or are considering legislation to do so.
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As summer storms begin, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network is speaking to people about how climate change affects them.
Worsening storms are causing billions of dollars in damage. Sea level rise in Virginia could leave residents in a similar position in the coming decades.
Jenny Sebold is a Vermont business owner whose shop was decimated when the Winooski River flooded in 2023. As a single mother, closing her shop for flood repairs put her in a tough financial position.
“One of them was launching off into the world and I had to often wake up in the morning and decide am I going to feed myself today or am I going to send my kid off to pursue his dream,” Sebold recounted. “He’s worked so hard for his whole young adult life, and so oftentimes I would have an empty belly.”
Between 2020 and 2022, more than 3 million Americans became climate refugees since flooding forced them to move. In response to it and to other climate devastation, Vermont passed a law requiring fossil-fuel companies responsible for climate change to pay into a fund for the state to brace for worsening storms. The New York state Legislature recently passed a similar law.
Southwestern states are seeing the opposite: rising temperatures and extreme heat from climate change.
Patrice Parker is a student and cashier living in Arizona with several health conditions. She said the ever-worsening heat combined with such conditions disrupts her daily life.
“I have increased pain in my bones, joints and muscles, my migraines are worse,” Parker outlined. “More often my fatigue and complete exhaustion, high heart rate, anxiety and depression are always worse when it’s summer because of the heat.”
She added the extreme heat agitates her asthma, making it harder to breathe. Studies show increasing temperatures from climate change promote more ground-level ozone pollution, which can trigger asthma attacks.
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New York elected officials are kicking off a tour to tout the benefits of electric vehicles.
The Elected Officials to Protect America tour is planning stops in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Georgia, to encourage state leaders to transition their states to EVs. New York climate goals stipulate all new cars sold in New York will be all-electric by 2035.
Asm. Angelo Santabarbara, D-Amsterdam, said climate change’s growing impacts make the transition necessary.
“The fact is, our world is facing serious climate change issues and we’ve been seeing this for quite some time,” Santabarbara pointed out. “We are also seeing the effects of that. We’ve seen it year after year. From the first year I’ve been in office, I’ve seen the effects of climate change devastate our communities, from flooding to fires.”
This year, one of the worst hurricane seasons is predicted. As storms intensify, so does the damage. But Santabarbara is one of many who see electric vehicles as another tool to stave off climate change.
Legislation is easing the process of building up EV charging infrastructure but he noted more needs to be done.
The electric vehicle transition is also being seen as a way to improve public health. Breathing particulate matter leads to health effects like heart disease and respiratory issues.
Jason West, director of energy and sustainability for the City of Albany, said tailpipe exhaust makes up much of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions.
“As the global burning of fossil fuels relentlessly raises the planet’s temperature, air quality and its damaging health effects will only get worse,” West asserted. “Extreme heat, heart and lung disease amplifies mental health issues, and compounds the traumas faced by those in environmental justice communities.”
Challenges have kept EVs from being more widely accepted. Affordability is an issue for some, although state tax credits and consumer incentives are helping with that.
Alex Cornell du Houx, president and co-founder of Elected Officials to Protect America, noted a major threat to EVs is misinformation.
“Everyone’s probably heard of some rumors and ‘facts,’ supposedly, that are about EVs, which are just put out there as disinformation,” du Houx emphasized. “It’s practically pretty amazing how you can paint an EV as something that causes fires all the time, when the alternative literally combusts.”
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