Tailpipe Emissions Choking New Jersey Residents, Experts Say

by Tom Johnson, NJSpotlight.com 

New Jersey has made steady progress in improving its air quality over the past 10 years, but it may take another decade to achieve the federal health standard for ground-level ozone, the main ingredient in the smog that smothers parts of the state each summer.

With power plants and other industrial facilities in the state sharply reducing emissions from most conventional pollutants, aside from the greenhouse gases contributing to climate change, it is time to focus on reducing pollution from vehicles, according to panelists at a conference sponsored by the New Jersey Energy Coalition in New Brunswick yesterday.

“It’s the cars; it’s the trucks; it’s the off-road vehicles that are going to be the big challenge,’’ according to William O’Sullivan, director of the Division of Air Quality for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

New federal fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars, as well as a new proposal to tighten standards for heavy-duty vehicles recommended by President Obama earlier this week, could help clean up the air and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but other steps are needed.

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