Business groups seek help from Dem legislative leaders to stop electric car mandate

A group of roughly 100 business nonprofit groups want the New Jersey Legislature to stop Gov. Phil Murphy’s bid to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

“The governor’s proposal is both impractical and misguided,” the New Jersey Business Coalition said today in a letter to legislative leaders.  “Banning gas-powered engines would inequitably strain the limited resources of families, businesses, governments, and our electrical utilities. Affordability and environmental protection do not have to be mutually exclusive.”

The group told Senate President Nicholas Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin that the electric vehicle mandate would place “an enormous financial burden onto every New Jersey family, especially low- and middle-income residents.”

“This EV mandate would result in fewer low and middle-income families, teenagers, and seniors being able to afford a car — greatly impacting their quality of life and ability to get to work, school, and food stores,” the group said.  “By denying thousands of New Jerseyans access to an affordable vehicle, this mandate would be crippling to our communities, businesses, economy, and labor workforce, and would exacerbate income inequality in our state.”

The coalition, led by the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, suggests that the state “has the tools and resources to reduce emissions without heavy-handed government mandates.”

“New Jersey residents should have the ultimate choice in the vehicles they purchase,” the group told Scutari and Coughlin.