The Star-Ledger’s recent editorial, “New Jerseyans suffer from toxic diesel fumes. Trenton seems fine with that,” opposing legislation calling for a two-year delay in implementation of the state’s Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rule, misses the point.
We all want to improve New Jersey’s air quality to protect everyone’s health. New Jersey truck dealers want to sell what customers want to buy, and they don’t want California mandating they buy only electric trucks. (The rule requires an increasing percentage of new trucks sold in the state to be zero-emission vehicles.)
There are obstacles to widespread adoption of electric heavy-duty and medium-size trucks, including affordability and charging infrastructure. The price of an electric heavy-duty truck is as much as $500,000, two or three times more than a new cleaner-diesel truck, and there is virtually no publicly-available charging.
Everything delivered to your doorstep or local store arrives by truck. If consumers think groceries are expensive now, wait until the ACT rule brings more expensive trucks and more trucks on the road, due to range and payload challenges.
Many New Jersey dealers will have only a few diesel trucks available in 2025 because manufacturers are withholding them and sending them to states that haven’t adopted an ACT rule.
Rushing into the ACT Rule on Jan. 1, 2025, will only cause industries that rely on heavy-duty trucks to hold onto their older trucks longer. We should use every tool to help industries update their fleets with trucks that have the latest emission technologies, as well as electric options.
Delaying the rule for two years will not disadvantage anyone. We all win when the state is prepared to help its EV mandates succeed instead of seeing a fast failure on electric trucks deter future adoption.
Laura Perrotta, president, New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers, and Eric DeGesero, lobbyist, New Jersey Motor Truck Association
I’ll be home(less) for Christmas?
“Kudos” to Sheriff Armadno Fontoura of Essex County and Sheriff Shaun Golden of Monmouth County for having residential foreclosure classified ads run in the Christmas Day print edition of the Star-Ledger. And, even bigger “kudos” to the staff of the paper who were so tone deaf as to allow that to happen.
Class acts, one and all.
This cruel foolishness, combined with the apparent decision to keep non-promotional Star-Ledger subscription prices the same, while eliminating the print edition as of Feb. 3, displays a startling degree of cynicism and greed.
Keep up the good work.
Paul Weinstein, Asbury Park
Keep those letters coming
Congratulations to my fellow 2024 letter-to-the editor writers.
Most newspapers will print letters submitted by any writer regardless of where they live, so long as the topic is relevant to readers.
It helps to have a snappy introduction, good hook, be timely, precise, have an interesting or different viewpoint to increase your odds of publication. Newspapers generally welcome letters commenting on their own editorials, articles or previously published letters to the editor.
I’m grateful that the Star-Ledger afford both me and my fellow letter writers the opportunity to express our views, as well as differing opinions on issues of the day.
Please join me along with your neighbors in reading the Star-Ledger. Patronize their advertisers; they help provide the revenue necessary to keep them in business. This helps pay to provide space for your favorite or not-so-favorite letter writers.
Larry Penner, Great Neck, N.Y.
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