in our spotlight on business report tonight the US Senate deals a blow to the electric car market voting last week to repeal a rule allowing California to ban sales of gas-powered cars by 2035 That created a ripple effect across the country 11 other states including New Jersey were set to follow in California's footsteps representing roughly 40% of the US auto market Now Governor Murphy has called for half of all new car sales to be electric by 2027 as part of a larger effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution President Trump who's opposed clean car mandates in the past is expected to sign the bill once it lands on his desk meaning New Jerseyy's EV rule could be dead before it fully gets off the ground For more on this I'm joined by Doug Ali He's the director of Environment New Jersey [Music] Doug it's good to talk to you Um I think the question on most people's minds is how does the Senate's decision to repeal this uh rule in California affect New Jerseys uh chances and also um ways in which it's trying to adopt its own electric vehicle rules Well I think that the key thing to know is that regardless of what happens in Washington New Jersey has been a clean car leader for more than two decades and this was no surprise Whether it was a congressional vote or regulation uh or through litigation there was an expectation that New Jersey's leadership with 11 other states was going to be challenged But the fact is it's it's not 1990 anymore you know we we have a constituency of more than 200,000 New Jersey residents that are driving EVs right now And more importantly we've seen a growth uh over the course not just New Jersey but in uh our clean car states of more than we've seen growth quadruple over the course of the last four years So we're really starting to see adoption that's going beyond kind of the early adopters and is getting more to the mass market One of the key things that's driven that growth of course is what New Jersey has done We have strong EV incentives that make it easier to get behind the wheel We have more and more chargers all across the state Not as common as gas stations but increasingly it's a lot easier to find a place to plug in on the go And we also have and this is perhaps most important is that the price of your traditional electric vehicle has become a lot more affordable and sometimes is at price parity or even cheaper than your traditional gas power car And that's just won't it Doug though make it more difficult for the state to keep up with that infrastructure also continue any type of incentives because you know the state is about 100,000 plus cars behind where the governor wanted to be at this point in time Does this not affect that it it certainly does in the sense of that if you you want partnerships between states and the feds and clearly at this point you've had a 180 from the feds saying we are not going to be promoting electric vehicles or actually going in the opposite direction But the the good news is the 11 states that form clean cars those states represent about 40% of the market And that that announcement that they made on Friday about the Affordable Clean Cars Coalition is to basically say we're not going away And New Jersey is obviously one of those states and the investments that we've made are starting to pay off We will continue to make those investments in infrastructure as well as through rebates So clearly you know having this this vote in the Senate is not is is not a plus uh for electric vehicles but it doesn't mean that the 200,000 EV drivers to suddenly disappear And most importantly nearly uh 40% of New Jersey drivers are EV curious They're interested in getting behind the wheel of an EV with their next purchase And the the good news is the cars keep on getting um more you know the the the cars keep on coming out Cars and light trucks keep on coming out that appeal to you your typical driver right this is not just like a bunch of Priuses that are driving around anymore right and I think that's critical message for folks Um you referenced that multi-state effort that Governor Murphy signed on to along with other folks um the climate alliance for governors Does that mean that New Jersey is going to change its strategy Doug in terms of regulations or in terms of how it goes at this um because obviously environmental concerns are at the forefront um of where a lot of this is coming from Yeah I mean I think there there will need to be a shift just acknowledging that the fact that the feds are obviously not where they were last year and also acknowledging that you know historically New Jersey has had stronger protections than the rest of the country and and the federal government That's been kind of one of our bedrock principles And in this case one of the largest sources of climate pollutants as well as ground level air pollution comes from our cars and light trucks So it makes sense if we're serious about cleaning up our air pollution and tackling climate change that we have to address our pollution that comes from our cars and light trucks That's why New Jersey is not going to walk away from this fight And that's why this is different than it was 20 years ago when electric vehicles were really just you know a twinkle in the eye of engineers EV curious Um I think that might be my favorite statement that you made Uh Doug Ali thanks so much for your time on this Thanks for the latest Thanks Briana Appreciate it Support for the business report is provided by Riverview Jazz presenting the 12th annual Jersey City Jazz Festival May 27th to the 31st Event details including performance schedules and location are online at jerseycityjazzfestestival.com [Music]