U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla and leaders from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $500 million in historic funding to reduce toxic emissions and improve air quality in Southern California to help “our children breathe.”
Representatives from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD) joined Padilla for the July 22 announcement at Bandini Park in Commerce, located next to the 710 freeway, where there is a constant flow of large trucks rushing through the city, causing both noise and air pollution. It’s a scene that is repeated on freeways throughout the region, including the San Fernando Valley.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla
“I grew up in [Pacoima], where I remember the smell of diesel exhaust from the school buses we would ride to and from school and on field trips.”
The funding is part of the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program, made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act that Padilla supported.
The grants will provide incentives to “decarbonize” the freight and transportation sectors at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. The key goals are to replace diesel trucks and other polluting equipment and “make historic investments in zero emissions infrastructure” to “improve air quality for communities who for too long have been overlooked and left behind,” said Padilla.
Living with Air Pollution
“The reality is that far too many families in Southern California have been forced to live with the harmful effects of toxic air pollution,” said Padilla, noting that issue is personal to him because “it’s the same battle that I remember when I was a kid growing up” in the San Fernando Valley.
“I grew up in [Pacoima], where I remember the smell of diesel exhaust from the school buses we would ride to and from school and on field trips,” he said. “I remember when the smog would settle over the basin … in the San Fernando Valley and we would at a minimum not be let out to play during recess, or on really bad days even be sent home from school early because the air was that bad. That reality is still the case for far too many children. Our children deserve better.”
Approximately 40% of the nation’s imports come through the LA and Long Beach ports, contributing to excessive emissions in the regions surrounding the ports, explained Padilla. In addition, imports are transported via trucks that travel inland, leaving trails of emissions from diesel fuel across the communities they pass through. The new funding is expected to “make an extraordinary impact on decarbonizing the heavy duty sectors” and areas most affected, he said.
“We shouldn’t have to choose between being a pivotal part of our nation’s economy and having clean air for our children,” said Padilla. “We can do both, we must do both.”
This CPRG investment will reduce emissions by incentivizing the development of zero-emission vehicle charging equipment, zero-emission freight vehicles, battery electric cargo equipment and electric switcher locomotives.
“The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants being unveiled today will deliver unprecedented resources to states, local governments, and Tribes – here in Southern California and across the U.S. – for local solutions that can provide national examples to accelerate the needed transition off of fossil fuels,” said Martha Guzman, Pacific Southwest regional administrator for the EPA. “These efforts will create jobs, reduce the emissions fueling climate change and clean up the dirty, dangerous air that too many overburdened communities have breathed for too long.”
Vanessa Delgado, chair of South Coast AQMD’s governing board, said they are grateful for the funding, which is the largest in the agency’s history and will have a significant impact for years.
“Over the next 25 years, these funds will help reduce 12 million metric tons of carbon emissions,” said Delgado. “On top of that, 1,600 tons of smog forming emissions will be avoided annually, while creating green jobs and fostering economic growth.”
The EPA awarded a combined $4.3 billion in grants via the CPRG program to fund projects in 30 states to help reduce air pollution, advance environmental justice and accelerate the nationwide transition from oil, coal and natural gas toward clean energy, including wind and solar power.