NEW JERSEY — The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU), and New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) this week announced $70 million in Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) auction proceed awards to help reduce the upfront costs of electric trucks, buses, and equipment in overburdened communities.
The $70 million investment will fund the purchase of 156 electric vehicles, including 114 school buses, eight garbage and dump trucks, 26 shuttle and transit buses, and four forklifts, all operating in approximately 20 overburdened communities across the state. The auction proceeds will also fund four projects, led by Via, Blink, Envoy and Zipcar, to bring electric ride-sharing options to communities that lack access to reliable transportation.
Warren County will receive funding to purchase three electric trucks.
This announcement builds on more than $240 million awarded statewide since 2019 for nearly 3,000 electric vehicle charging stations, 700 electric trucks and buses, and 12,000 electric passenger vehicles.
Drawing on the success of RGGI proceeds spent to date, New Jersey also announced the release of the 2023-2025 RGGI Auction Proceeds Scoping Document to outline potential initiatives that NJDEP, NJBPU, and NJEDA could each sponsor during the 2023-2025 funding cycle. The three state agencies are seeking feedback from the public on the prospective initiatives described in the scoping document and for other possible investments with RGGI proceeds.
A series of interactive public workshops will be held on April 4, 11, 13 and 18 to collect input that will be considered in finalizing the RGGI Strategic Funding Plan for years 2023-2025.
The NJDEP, NJBPU, and the NJEDA jointly released the first RGGI Strategic Funding Plan in April 2020, detailing how auction proceeds would be invested in climate change, clean energy, and environmental justice projects for the years 2020-2022. More than $100 million from auction proceeds was dedicated across the state during that time. The Strategic Funding Plan is reviewed every three years and updated to ensure that investments are aligned across agencies to meet the Murphy Administration’s clean energy and greenhouse gas reduction goals.
To further those efforts, New Jersey recently accepted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s offer to participate in the historic Climate Pollution Reduction Planning Grant Program, through which the state will receive $3 million for green initiatives. Specifically, the federal funds may be used to accelerate climate pollutant emissions reduction programs that will improve air quality and public health and better serve communities.
New Jersey is also committed to decarbonizing residential and commercial buildings to improve indoor air quality and public health, while leveraging federal rebates and grants through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to reduce costs to ratepayers.
New Jersey is especially vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, many of which are already familiar to residents due to increasingly mild winters, hotter summers, more extreme precipitation, increasing inland flooding across the state’s watersheds, and sea-level rise resulting in more “sunny day” tidal flooding along the Atlantic coast.
RGGI is a cap-and-trade pact among 11 northeastern states dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity generating sector. New Jersey invests its RGGI auction proceeds in programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, drive forward projects that boost clean energy and create jobs, protect the health of residents in environmental justice communities, and increase the resiliency of coastal communities.
For a list of projects to be funded with the $70 million in RGGI auction proceeds, click here.
