Southern California air regulators voted to impose millions of dollars in fees on the region's biggest polluters, undoing a controversial program that made major sources immune from penalties.
Southern California does not meet federal clean air standards, so under US law its big polluters must reduce their emissions by 20%. If they do not achieve these reductions, they will have to pay fees comparable to their emissions. The money will go towards investments in clean air in the region.
Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science.
But for years, the South Coast Air Quality Management District used a controversial accounting rule it enacted in 2011 to protect polluters from having to pay. The rule allowed the agency to forgive pollution fees if the air district dedicated a dollar-for-dollar match to emissions reduction initiatives.
Over the past decade, the air district may have collected more than $200 million in pollution fees from Southern California's biggest polluters, according to government records obtained by Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization based in San Francisco.
Last year, Earthjustice and other environmental groups asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to intervene and require the air district to review its pollution fee program, arguing that the loophole had eliminated momentum for these facilities. to curb their emissions.
The pollution fees will affect about 320 facilities, including oil refineries.
Newsletter
Towards a more sustainable California
Get Boiling Point, our newsletter exploring climate change, energy and the environment, and be part of the conversation and the solution.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
At Friday's meeting, air district staff said that if the agency did not collect pollution fees, as required by federal law, the U.S. EPA would collect the fees and those funds would go to the federal treasury.
But critics noted the fees could place a financial burden on regional hospitals, wastewater treatment facilities and other essential operations that may have to pay them.
The rule “will not improve our air quality significantly,” said Brad Bowman, who expressed concern about the fiberglass manufacturing business where he works. “They will not solve our default problem and will harm our already difficult California economy.”
Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, said the action was long overdue.
“It's laudable that we're finally going to comply with federal law,” he said.
