One of the most controversial pieces of Governor Murphy's clean energy plan was up for public debate today.

The state's Clean Cars program, which aims to phase out the sale of all gas powered cars in New Jersey by 2035 is an ambitious goal.

That environmental is back, but many others say it just isn't feasible.

Melissa Rose Cooper reports.

You can't afford a car in New Jersey but the Department of Environmental Protection is telling you is that take a EV bus, carpool or buy a bike.

And we all think those are unrealistic options for New Jersey.

Ray Cancer Deputy Chief government affairs officer for the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, criticizing the state's Advance Clean Cars program.

The plan aims to eliminate the sales of gas powered cars by 2035.

The cars are not affordable.

We don't have the infrastructure to deal with it.

And a lot of people just don't want it because for lots of reasons and we don't think the state should be mandating that.

Cantor was one of many speakers who testified at today's public hearing hosted by the Department of Environmental Protection.

Doug O'Malley, executive director of Environment New Jersey, expressed his support for the program.

Cars and light trucks are the largest source of ground level ozone, so a majority of New Jersey counties fail on ozone standards, according to the American Lung Association.

We expect, because of climate change that our ozone alert days are going to double over the course of the next three decades.

So we really need to tackle our pollution from our cars and trucks, both for climate change but also for our lungs.

And we heard from multiple doctors this morning of the DEP hearing and how they're seeing their patients get worse as temperatures increase.

Take into consideration communities that have been historically negatively affected, more dense areas by air pollution and public health issues such as asthma, heart disease and other factors that contribute to folks in communities that are disadvantaged.

We also see this as an opportunity to to combat those.

According to the EPA's latest Strategic Climate Action Plan.

New Jersey will need 4.5 million plug in electric cars on the road by 2035 in order to meet its goal of phasing out gas-powered cars.

But critics don't believe that's possible.

So the current mandates for model year 2022 are supposed to be 22% of the vehicles offered for sale in the state of New Jersey must be zero emission or battery electric vehicles, where less than 10%.

And here, the administration has proposed doubling, tripling and quadrupling down on that mandate when they fail to meet.

And consumers have failed to demonstrate the kind of demand that would be required to comply with this proposal.

DEP Commissioner Shawn LaTourette maintains the plan is on track to a clean energy future.

There is no ban on gasoline powered cars proposed by the Murphy administration.

There is a ramp up period to get us to an all zero emission vehicle future, and that plan does not mean that no one in the state of New Jersey could ever buy a gas-powered vehicle after 2035.

It means that automakers should contribute more electric vehicles to our marketplace.

It does not constrain choice.

It opens up.

Choice.

Right now, there's an open comment period for the public to weigh in on the Clean Cars program.

Critics say if the measure does go through, they want the state to implement a review in the next few years to determine if, in fact, the plan is working and whether the program should continue.

For NJ Spotlight News, I'm Melissa Rose Cooper.