Here's why California regulators want more money to improve air quality

Southe Califoia’s air pollution regulators unveiled an air cleanup plan Thursday that essentially calls for the region to buy its way out of the worst smog problem in the nation.

The draft plan from the Southu2009Coast Airu2009Quality Management District relies on cash incentives of about $1u2009billion a year for the next decade and beyond for the region to transition to zero or near-zero polluting vehicles, buildings and industries, said Wayne Nastri, the air district’s acting executive officer.

About half of the money would come from the federal govement and thus require congressional approval, Nastri said. The air district also expects funds from the state.

The money would go toward incentives to help companies upgrade trucks and other machinery and to create much cleaner ways to move cargo and manufacture goods.

Nastri called for the federal govement to create a “clean air investment and cleanup fund,” which would be similar to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund now used to clean up polluted industrial sites and groundwater contamination.

The money could come from appropriations and revenues from fines and judgments imposed on pollution-rule violators, such as Volkswagen, which this week agreed to pay $14.7u2009billion in civil penalties for using software that allowed its vehicles to cheat on emission tests.

Nastri said it won’t be easy to get Congress on board.

“There are a number of different concepts we have, and we intend to get support for this,” he said. “We recognize that it is a lot of work.”

He said AQMD board members have visited Washington, D.C., and found several member of Congress amiable to idea, including Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona.

Calvert could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The air quality cleanup is needed to meet health standards required under the federal Clean Air Act.

The idea of heavy reliance on cash incentives was praised and criticized.

Jay Prag, an economy and finance professor at the Drucker School of Management in Claremont, applauded the idea.

“Incentivizing industry to help meet the (clean air) goal lets the market find the best alteatives, and the most effective ways of doing this,” Prag said in a telephone interview.

“It lets businesses find the ways, and incentive-based programs have good track records,” he said.

But Angela Johnson Meszaros, a Los Angeles-based attoey for the environmental advocacy law firm Earthjustice, described the strategy as giveaway to polluters.

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“When they say ‘incentives,’ what they are really saying is let the polluters off the hook and have the taxpayers responsible for paying to address the polluter’s pollution,” she said. “It is not right.”

She said the Cleanu2009Air Act is supposed to guarantee clean air for all people, and businesses should not be able to profit from pollution.

“You can’t have your behavior harm others because you don’t want to pay for the control strategies,” she said.

During the press briefing, Philip Fine, the air district’s deputy executive officer, said the new cleanup plan includes requiring the region’s factories, refineries and power plants to collectively cut nitrogen oxide emissions by an additional five tons day. This would be in addition to a reduction of 12u2009tons day approved in December.

Fine said air district officials looked hard to find cost-effective ways to cut pollution from businesses and other nonmoving sources.

“Our goal is not to put our businesses at a disadvantage or out of business,” Fine said.

The cleanup strategy is aimed at meeting the federal health standards for ozone by 2031. Ozone is the hallmark pollutant of summertime smog.

Ozone pollution rises during hot, stagnant weather, which cooks up urban pollutants. It causes nausea, headaches and buing eyes and triggers asthma attacks, among other health problems.

Various studies have shown that more children miss school and more workers call in sick during bad air days. Studies also link air pollution to early deaths.

So far this year, Southe Califoia has weathered 54u2009days during which ozone pollution somewhere in the region’s ocean-to-mountains air basin exceeded the most recent federal standard of 70u2009parts per billion averaged over eight hours.

That’s 13u2009more unhealthful days than the region had experienced by this time last year, according to data published online by the Califoia Air Resources Board.