New Jersey’s quest to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035 has been a bumpy, pothole-riddled road.
Now, it appears the federal government has taken a jackhammer to the plan.
The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to block California‘s electric car rule, which sets up EV requirements here and 11 other states.
President Donald Trump, who has opposed clean car mandates in the past, must now sign off on the resolution (which was already approved by the House). If that happens, New Jersey is expected to lose the ability to require all new car sales to be fully electric vehicles starting in 2035.
The Senate voted to take back three Environmental Protection Agency waivers that former President Joe Biden had granted California. That included a phase out of gas-powered trucks as well.
Gov. Phil Murphy has supported New Jersey adopting the EV rule — which in effect bans new gas-powered car sales and was meant to gradually start next year.
The rule would require 51% of all new car sales in New Jersey to be fully electric in 2027. The prospects of the regulations appear to now be in doubt.
Supporters of national EV rules, like advocates from New Jersey Policy Perspective, have urged that they are part of larger goals to fend off the threats of climate change and the harmful impacts tied to car emissions. The 12 states that had agreed to follow the California mandates represented roughly 40% of the U.S. auto market.
Alex Ambrose, the transportation and climate policy analyst for the group, has called on the need to “reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.”
Environmental regulators estimated in 2020 that the transportation sector is New Jersey’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 38% of the emissions total.
Many climate activists and Democrats have supported EV rules as well, noting they do not ban the sale of used gas-powered cars, come with incentives to ease the transition and do not prevent buyers from purchasing several hybrid vehicle models.
Conversely, several Republicans have called EV requirements here — and in other states — impractical.
Some businesses and business groups have been critical too, saying government officials have overstepped and ignored market trends.
“New Jersey residents will now be able to choose the type of vehicle they buy, at a more affordable price, and they won’t have to cross the border to Pennsylvania to purchase the vehicle that meets their family’s needs,” Laura Perrotta, president of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers, said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
Perrotta lauded the U.S. Senate’s passage of the three Congressional Review Act resolutions which revoked the California mandates.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Thursday he would sue the Trump administration in order to maintain that state’s vehicle emission rules.
N.J. just hit 200K electric cars registered. How far is state from goals? https://t.co/2q1kUnxozY
— NJ.com Politics (@NJ_Politics) December 10, 2024
At the end of 2024, Murphy‘s administration said New Jersey had surpassed 200,000 electric vehicle registrations.
That’s shy of the governor’s previously stated target of 330,000 EVs on the road by this year. And yet, clean car advocates have said the state has seen significant electric car and charger growth in the past three years.
Following the news in California, governors in several states said they will launch a series of “clean vehicle programs” as part of a new initiative.
Those states include: California, Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.
Governors there called out Congress and the federal government for an ongoing “series of destabilizing actions” undermining the EV auto sector.Actions, they said, like trying to rescind previously announced federal EV charger funds, nix consumer credits for buying EVs and dismantle clean vehicle programs.
“The federal government and Congress are putting polluters over people and creating needless chaos for consumers and the market, but our commitment to safeguarding Americans’ fundamental right to clean air is resolute,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Murphy and others wrote in a joint statement.
Organizations like Environment New Jersey and the national Sierra Club have questioned the legality of the U.S. Senate vote and the Trump administration’s recent moves around electric vehicles infrastructure and sales goals.
Doug O’Malley, state director of Environment New Jersey, on Friday afternoon pointed to state funds still available for EV chargers and other incentives that are helping a transition advocates knew was not going to happen over night.
“Regardless of what is happening in D.C., we continue to see the rollout of electric vehicles and electric trucks in New Jersey,” O’Malley told NJ Advance Media on the phone. “That’s because New Jersey has had a more than two decade legacy of leading on electrification.”
But New Jersey Business and Industry Association on Thursday said the state has shifted from carbon emissions on its own, independent of an EV rule that originated on the West Coast.
“We have seen organic growth in the usage of electric vehicles, also as it should be,“ said Ray Cantor, who focuses on government affairs for the NJBIA. ”But continuing efforts to mandate a ban of new gas-powered cars in such an expedited time frame would be to ignore feasibility, practicality and affordability in New Jersey."
Stories by Steven Rodas
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Steven Rodas may be reached at srodas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @stevenrodas.bsky.social.