Press Release

San Joaquin Valley Smog Clean-Up Is Possible Faster and Cheaper Than Indicated at Today’s Hearing by Bob Sawyer and Catherine Witherspoon

Sacramento, CA (July 6, 2007)
The Governor recently fired the chair of the California Air Resource Board (CARB), publicly stating he is disappointed that the CARB has let the federal government off the hook by delaying clean air standards by 11 years in the San Joaquin Valley. Today the California State Assembly Committee on Natural Resources met to discuss the recent upheaval at the CARB with testimony from former Chairman of the Board Bob Sawyer and former Executive Officer Catherine Witherspoon.

In public testimony, Sawyer and Witherspoon made remarks that aren’t accurate regarding what it would take to clean up the air in the San Joaquin Valley. Experts have shown that the Valley can achieve clean air better and faster than the current plan proposes if the plan includes all available measures that include:

1. Fully consider the value that retrofit technology can play in improving air quality in the Valley. Between now and 2018 (more than ten years), it is reasonable to expect that retrofit technology to reduce NOx emissions by 80% will be available for virtually every type of equipment in the Valley.
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2. Clean Air Days, phased-in over a reasonable period of time, as a ‘carrot and stick’ approach to significantly reduce emissions from the operation of diesel equipment. This approach would ensure that operators of old polluting machinery, who choose not to utilize available incentive funding to retrofit or replace their equipment, would not be allowed to operate their equipment on high pollution days (estimated to be approximately 30 days a year in 2017). This measure has not been objectively and fully considered in a public forum.
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3. The San Joaquin Valley Air District has failed the Valley and adopted largely meaningless rules, many of which ignore the benefits of controlling VOC in the Valley. More health-protective rules are available today to reduce both NOx and VOC emissions much further from existing sources, including glass furnaces, dairy pollution, composting operations, etc.

The following experts are available to brief reporters and policymakers on the facts:

Nicole Davis
(909) 289 - 4397
Vice-President of ISSRC
Co-author of the Clearing the Air report released this year showing that the Valley can attain clean air faster.

Alvin Valeriano
(559) 960 - 8145; (559) 229 -6860
ISSRC Consultant and former staff member of the San Joaquin Valley Air District

Tim Carmichael
(310) 753 - 2300
Senior Director of Policy at the Coalition for Clean Air

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For more than 35 years, the non-profit Coalition for Clean Air has been committed to restoring clean air to California. With offices in Sacramento, Los Angeles and Fresno, it is dedicated to strengthening the environmental movement by promoting broad-based community involvement, advocating responsible public policy and providing technical expertise.

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