John Boyle
Mon, 12 Jan 2004 14:36:06 -0800
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I have posted a new bikes on transit photos page on
webshots showing bikes being taken on SEPTA, PATCO and NJ Transit
as well as bike parking and taking bikes on other
transit systems across the country.
http://community.webshots.com/user/bikemap and
click on "Bikes on
Transit"
Thanks go out to John Madera, Claudia Crane, Steve
Spindler and Jeanette MacNeille for helping me get some of these shots during
last year's Bike on Bus Blitz at 69th St. In February we will
be doing a bike on rail blitz for the new River Line train, probably
at the Waterfront Entertainment Center station Camden.
Also this just in from Garden State Environmental
News
LANDMARK BILL TO CLEAN UP AIR POLLUTION
SCHEDULED FOR FINAL PASSAGE MONDAY NJPIRG, NJEF, NJ Sierra Club, January 10, 2003 Trenton - Two days after the near unanimous passage of the Clean Cars Act out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee, the bill is on the verge of passage by the full Legislature on Monday. The bill would reduce air toxics by an additional 23 percent more than the federal emission standards and smog precursors by 19 percent by 2020 through stricter car emissions standards and the promotion of cleaner, advanced technology vehicles. The neighboring states of New York and Massachusetts have already adopted the stricter emissions control program designed by California, known as the Low Emission Vehicle program, Phase II (LEV II). "Here in New Jersey, everyone breathes air that egregiously exceeds USEPA standards. We don't have to look any further than the heavy traffic in our own communities and on the highways that surround us to understand how profoundly automobile emissions contribute to our state's pollution problem. This bill will start to clear the air in New Jersey by encouraging carmakers to produce the cleanest cars possible for New Jersey as early as this year and in increasing numbers over time," said Dena Mottola, NJPIRG's executive director. The impending vote comes on the heels of an announcement last month by the EPA that the entire state of New Jersey will be officially designated as out of compliance with the agency's health-based standard for ozone. Additionally, seven of New Jersey's counties (Hudson-2nd, Camden-8th, Essex-13th, Bergen-9th, Monmouth-14th, Union- 20th and Mercer-23rd) are rated among the 25 worst in the nation for air toxics, a family of carcinogens emitted primarily by cars and trucks in New Jersey. "Air pollution amounts to the 3rd most serious public health risk factor in the state. Only obesity and smoking claim more lives than air pollution every year. Although cars are the single largest source of unhealthy air pollution, up until now little has been done to reduce pollution from cars," said David Pringle of the New Jersey Environmental Federation. An amended version of the bill was voted on and approved by the Senate Thursday with language similar to the bill voted out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee on the same day. The amended version creates more flexibility for carmakers to reach the goal of selling an estimated 160,000 cleaner, advanced technology cars per year and to produce a small fraction of pure zero emission cars for New Jersey starting in 2012. The program will not go into effect until January 1, 2009 but carmakers will receive credits towards the 2009 requirement for clean cars placed in the state as early as 1999 and up until 2009. The bill also sets up a Commission, composed of legislators, state officials, dealers, automakers, public health experts and environmentalists, to watchdog the state's implementation process and make recommendations to the Legislature and the DEP on the viability of the program. "This bill gives the green light for cleaner air in New Jersey," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "We have broken out of the traffic jam and we're going to reduce air pollution and provide carmakers with the flexibility to get clean cars on the road." Although the bill won't mandate manufacturers produce clean cars for New Jersey before 2009, New Jersey will immediately see the impact of the bill because automakers will want to start banking credits for the 2009 requirement by placing cleaner advanced technology cars in New Jersey right now. Hot-selling cars like the Toyota Prius, which runs on a hybrid gasoline-electric engine, will become more readily available in the state, and carmakers will likely funnel other cleaner, advanced technology models to the state as they come on the market. J.D. Power and Associates, an industry expert, estimated carmakers will have at least 28 models of hybrids automobiles by 2008, including 18 trucks and SUVs and 10 cars. The latest success to pass the bill has been the result of bipartisan efforts in both houses of the Legislature, Governor McGreevey, who pledged to pass the bill during his election, and DEP Commissioner Campbell who also lent his support for the bill. In the Senate, Senate Co-President John Bennett (R-12) as well as co-prime Sponsor Sen. John Adler (D-6) and co-sponsors Sen. Tom Kean (R-21), Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance (R- 23), Sen. Co-President Dick Codey (D-27), as well as Senators Andy Ciesla (R-10), Diane Allen (R-7), Barbara Buono (D-18), Bob Smith (D-17), Shirley Turner (D-15), Steve Sweeney (D-3), Paul Sarlo (D-36), Joe Vitale (D-19), Bob Singer (R-30), and others worked to pass the amended language through the Senate yesterday. In the Assembly Appropriations Committee, after an extensive hearing, the committee passed the bill out with a strong, bipartisan 10-2 vote. The Assembly bill is sponsored by Assemblymen Reed Gusciora (D-15), Sean Kean (R-11), Matt Ahearn (Green-38) and John McKeon (D-27). Speaker Albio Sires (D-33), Majority Leader Joseph Roberts (D-5), Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D-6), and the Committee Chair Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-15) all played key roles in yesterday's committee action. Other members of the committee voting in favor of the bill included Steve Corodemus (R-11), Rose Heck (R-38), Nellie Pou (D-35), John Burzichelli (D-3), Herb Conaway (D-7), Mims Hackett (D-27), Fredrick Scalera (D) and Joe Cryan (D-20). The New Jersey Clean Cars Alliance, representing the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, the New Jersey Environmental Federation, the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, the American Lung Association and Environmental Defense, has worked hard to pass the bill over the course of a lengthy two-year campaign. The bill has faced heavy lobbying opposition from the automobile and business industry, including the New Jersey car dealers, the National Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Ford, GM, Chrysler, New Jersey Petroleum Council, the Chamber of Commerce, the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, and numerous hired lobbyists. "The push for cleaner cars in the state has continually run into a roadblock put up by special interests, who worked adamantly to prevent the basic right of cleaner air," Mottola concluded. "These attempts cannot outweigh the significance of this bill - to put New Jersey on the path to cleaner air by forcing carmakers to produce cleaner and cleaner cars over time, and directing the car market towards emission free cars in the not-so-distant future. Final passage of this bill will represent a public health victory for everyone who breathes in this state." John Boyle
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