Community Air Protection Program offers grants in Butte County
The Butte County Air Quality Management District has $859,639 from California s Community Air Protection Program for grants to help improve air quality.
Posted: Feb 17, 2021 4:38 PM
Updated: Feb 17, 2021 4:46 PM
Posted By: Linda Watkins-Bennett
BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. - The Butte County Air Quality Management District has $859,639 from California s Community Air Protection Program for grants to help improve air quality.
The funding comes from AB 617, approved by voters in 2017. The goal is to provide incentives for reducing emissions and exposure to pollution, especially in low-income communities.
Past projects funded with the grants include replacing air filtration systems in schools in Thermalito and Chico and replacing old buses with new, electric buses.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) appointed Chanell Fletcher, currently ClimatePlan’s Executive Director, to oversee its work on environmental justice and racial equity. Fletcher will be the point person on environmental justice within the agency and provide input on “CARB’s programs designed to address disproportionate impacts from air pollution and climate change and associated chronic health conditions affecting Black, Latinx and other communities of color across the state,” according to the press announcement.
The appointment is “a really big deal,” according to CARB Executive Officer Director Richard Corey, “and important for the organization going forward.”
Fletcher, who for years has advocated for environmental justice at CARB and other state agencies, knows this. “Now, more than ever, it’s imperative that we move to a model where we’re actively building relationships and trust with partners in the environmental and racial justice movement,” s
[co-author: Ivan Tether]
This is a continuing series of posts on the latest environmental and legal developments affecting oil and gas operations and development and other industries in Los Angeles and adjacent counties, as well as the southern San Joaquin Valley. In this post, we provide an update on regulatory developments at the California Air Resources Board, the California Geologic Energy Management Division, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
California Air Resources Board (CARB)
CARB’s ongoing regulatory actions affect industry generally and are focused more heavily on the oil and gas industry. Actions potentially affecting all industries include the AB 617 program, termed by CARB as the Community Air Protection Program, CRT, an evolving regulation requiring substantially increased reporting of both criteria and toxic air emissions and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, calculating carbon intensity based on Stanford’