in our spotlight on Business Report tonight environmental advocates are pushing to protect New Jersey's advanced clean trucks rule known as ACT that requires the trucking industry to move from diesel to electric trucks raven Santana was in Elizabeth where advocates highlighted the impact of diesel pollution as federal and state lawmakers debate whether or not to keep the rule [Music] within just five minutes of setting up along Newark Avenue I saw a steady stream of backtoback class 8 tractor trailers and heavyduty diesel trucks and I wasn't the only one keeping count oh it's a heavy duty vehicle around a dozen public health advocates environmental leaders and community members gathered in Elizabeth to monitor pollution levels from diesel trucks along major transit routes such as Newark Avenue the sheets that you saw going around they were sheets of it was an infographic of trucks and the air monitors that you'll see around people's uh necks that they're wearing or you know set on the table it's um calculating the amount of particulate matter also known as PM which is the chemical that is often emitted you know from these trucks that you see tolani Taylor zero emissions and warehouse organizer for Clean Water Action led the annual event which also coincided with World Asthma Day she is urging state officials to move forward without delay on implementing New Jerseys advanced clean trucks program emphasizing its importance for communities burdened by heavy truck traffic why is there multiple warehouses here in a playground where children are supposed to you know play and have fun or next to where people live as it moves away from where it's being generated and gets diluted in the air we don't see it anymore but we're still breathing it we're still breathing these really small particles everywhere in the state but obviously more the closer you are to the sources robert Lumbach associate professor in the department of environmental and occupational health and justice at Ruckers University says that daily exposure of these toxins can have serious and harmful health consequences they've been linked to increased risk of heart disease heart attacks as well as stroke uh adverse pregnancy outcomes like low birth weight uh babies and premature birth even neurodeenerative diseases have been linked now to these types of air pollutants so like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease regina Towns a retired Longshore woman with 31 years of experience says she has both witnessed and personally endured the health impacts of long-term exposure working in the ports I have been impacted right i develop high blood pressure so we're frontline workers with the ships with the truck drivers with the equipment we operate the handles the containers and things like that so I'm fueled by that the ACT standard which advocates support mandates that manufacturers steadily increase the sale of zero emission trucks the rule took effect in January but the trucking industry is lobbying for a bill in Trenton that would pause implementation for 2 years laura Prada president of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers explains why she believes the goal is not realistic for New Jersey three times more expensive for the electric truck and you can't perform your job duties on top of that if you're running the air conditioning if you're running the heat if you're going over hills or mountains the battery charge will go down quickly um I mean it's it's really it's it's a range issue it's a cost issue and then on top of that we have a charging issue we have zero publicly available um commercial electric chargers for trucks in the state of New Jersey while this mandate started January 1 uh 2025 none the bill to delay the rule passed an assembly committee in December but hasn't seen any action since new Jersey lawmakers may be waiting to see what happens in Washington where Republicans in Congress are working to revoke a federal waiver that allows California to set stricter pollution standards if that happens New Jerseyy's ACT rules may be undone for NJ Spotlight News I'm Raven Santana support for the business report is provided by Riverview Jazz presenting the 12th annual Jersey City Jazz Festival May 27th to the 31st event details including performance schedules and location are online at jerseycityjazzfestestival.com [Music]