Eustace 2012 KURDZUK.JPG

Assemblyman Timothy Eustace, (D-Bergen), seen in this 2012 file photo, wants to ban 'rolling coal'

(Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger)

TRENTON — An odd facet of the culture war has made its way to New Jersey.

A liberal New Jersey assemblyman personally experienced a fad called "rolling coal," in which drivers modify their diesel trucks to burn extra fuel and produce thick, black smoke.

And he wants to ban it.

State Assemblyman Tim Eustace (D-Bergen) said he was driving on the Turnpike last week in his Nissan Leaf – an electric car — when in front of him a raised pickup truck with a smoke stack belched black smoke, engulfing his diminutive vehicle.

“People had been telling this has been going on, but I hadn’t seen it,” Eustace said. “I was surprised to experience it myself.”

Eustace said he already planned to introduce a bill on the subject. The Turnpike encounter happened to occur a week before he actually had an opportunity to formally introduce it.

The bill (A3583) would prohibit “retrofitting diesel-powered vehicles to increase particulate emissions for the purpose of ‘coal rolling’” and ban “the practice of ‘coal rolling.’” The bill would allow the Department of Environmental Protection to levy large fines on violators.

Tractor pull vehicles have "rolled coal" for years. But YouTube videos of drivers purposely blowing smoke at hybrids and small cars have been popular over the last couple years.

But Eustace &— one of the Legislature’s most electric car-friendly legislators — said he doesn’t think rolling coal is really a statement against the scientific consensus on climate change, as many on the internet take it to be.

“I wish it was that thought out,” he said. “I think it’s just youthful ignorance.”

Then again, Eustace's bill might not be necessary. A spokeswoman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency told the liberal news website Talking Points Memo last month that modifying trucks to roll coal is already a violation of the Clean Air Act and that it has already forced some manufacturers to stop selling products that enable it.

And state DEP regulations already state vehicles "shall not emit visible smoke, whether from crankcase emissions or from tailpipe exhaust, for a period in excess of three consecutive seconds."

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