in our Spotlight on Business Report State Environmental leaders are putting their money where their mouth is today highlighting about 10 million dollars that will be spent to offer more financial incentives for residents to buy electric vehicles and to expand the charging infrastructure two of the biggest challenges the Murphy Administration faces in advancing their clean energy agenda Ted Goldberg reports the train has left the station have we taken a leadership position at the front of that train are we getting dragged by that train this is New Jersey we lead nobody drags us anywhere dep commissioner Sean La Tourette doesn't want New Jersey to get dragged in the race to help people Electrify their vehicles that might be why the state has added 10 million dollars in next year's budget to promote electric vehicles and charging infrastructure lots of rep promoted state and federal incentives to Electrify in Lawrence today a Township with five Municipal cars that are electric and a sixth on the way as a Township we are taking leadership on this issue electric vehicles are good for the economy and especially good for public health and also the environment the options are out there but they're not really that obvious and so a lot of people suffer from this anxiety of like are the options really out there according to dep data more than 120 000 EVS are roaming around New Jersey's roads their drivers can charge at one of two thousand full-service ports or 900 Quick Charge ports mostly located in North Jersey and off the turnpike those numbers are drastically higher than even a few years ago and leaders hope state and federal incentives bring more EVs and more charging stations the whole of New Jersey government is committed to finding opportunities to partner to move us towards our goals and to a zero Transportation emissions future you can save up to twelve thousand dollars on a new electric vehicle through the available state and federal incentives I am paying less per month for that new electric vehicle which is super cool than I was for my previous partially gas powered vehicle lotzeret has also touted charging stations for being clean and not posing a health hazard for the communities that have them they're small they also don't leak petrochemicals into our water table the way those gas stations do they don't result in abandoned Automotive facilities that towns have to then take up on their tax rolls and that responsible parties refuse to clean up Lawrence isn't the only municipality in Mercer County to Electrify its Fleet go Trenton started up yesterday an app-based program offering two dollar rides in all electric shuttles lotseret says ditching gas is good for public health and helping the environment we better prepare ourselves yes to meet the challenge of climate change but most importantly to push back on the increasing health risks that are largely invisible but not always invisible when the sky is stricken orange it is too late everything we do every day creates pollution the way that we run our lives our businesses our governments which might run a little cleaner thanks to state and federal health in Lawrence I'm Ted Goldberg Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight news