Valley deserves important share of new money for cleaning air
As lifelong residents of this great Valley, we have had the pleasure of helping to clean the Valley’s air and improve the health of our families and neighbors in two of the state’s most underserved communities.
Our role as city representatives to the governing board of the Valley Air District is among our most important work as public servants. Through major investments and work by Valley businesses, agriculture, public agencies, and residents to reduce air pollution, the Valley’s air quality has seen remarkable progress, even in the face of our bowl-like geography, frequent stagnation, impacts from trucks and locomotives, and significant population and economic growth.
Given these unique challenges, the Valley must work much harder than other regions to meet the same goals, and for decades, the Valley Air District and California Air Resources Board have set the national bar for clean air innovation.
These model air quality programs have been developed through extensive public engagement. They range from stringent emissions requirements for industrial and mobile sources, to comprehensive and award-winning strategies for reducing residential wood smoke, to the only-of-its-kind strategy for eliminating the historical practice of agricultural open burning, to nation-leading grant programs such as the highly acclaimed Tune-In & Tune-Up vehicle repair and tractor replacement programs.
While major progress has been made, much more must be done to meet our air quality goals. As we have all unfortunately experienced in recent years, wildfire smoke can impact our Valley for weeks at a time, pouring air pollution into our basin in quantities greater than all local sources combined, and instantly wiping out decades of progress.
Due to the Valley’s unique characteristics and increasing impacts from climate change, we must work together with our state and federal partners to further reduce air pollution from various sectors under our respective jurisdictions. With the majority of the Valley’s air pollution, near-community toxic impacts, and greenhouse gases coming from mobile sources primarily under state and federal jurisdiction, transformational changes are needed in how people travel and goods are moved if we are to meet our clean air goals, particularly for our most impacted communities.
While these challenges are daunting, problems present opportunities, and the Valley finds itself at a critical juncture in its clean air journey.
At both the state and federal level, new budgets and recently approved funding packages contain once-in-a-lifetime levels of funding for a variety of clean air and low-carbon initiatives. If well designed, these new funds could serve as major accelerants in our transition to the latest and cleanest technologies, and could show Valley residents that their long-standing concerns and needs are being heard as we work toward equity in our communities.
In the new budget, the governor and Legislature have allocated billions to clean air initiatives through the FARMER program, Clean Cars 4 All program, forest management programs, and a variety of new zero-emission vehicle programs. At the federal level, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act contain hundreds of billions of dollars for programs aimed at reducing air pollution and carbon emissions.
Given the Valley’s track record of innovation, these funds should be prioritized for regions with challenges like ours, and invested into the cleanest practices and technologies to accelerate our transition into a cleaner future.
In making these investments, it is imperative that all perspectives are heard to ensure that communities are not left behind. Additionally, these investments must be coupled with strong federal collaboration and commitment to equitably reduce air pollution from sources under their regulatory jurisdiction.
As representatives of our communities, we look forward to supporting strong clean air partnerships and continuing to improve the quality of life for our communities.