Welcome Environmental Justice Community!
 |
| Veronica Eady in her office. |
Welcome
to CARB’s Environmental Justice (EJ) Blog. CARB leads the state’s efforts to
protect the public from the harmful effects of air pollution and develops
programs and actions to fight climate change.
I’ve
met or visited with many environmental justice advocates and community leaders
across California over the past year. But, in case you don’t know me, my name
is Veronica Eady. As CARB’s first Assistant Executive Officer for Environmental
Justice, I am charged with making sure that CARB’s programs address
environmental concerns of our most impacted communities, especially
disadvantaged and low-income communities.
This
is CARB’s first ever blog and we’re happy to be forging this new communications
pathway to provide more regular updates about our work. We see this blog as one
of many tools for engaging California communities, and we’re hoping to reach
new audiences with information about CARB’s efforts to reduce exposure from
sources of air pollution and curb climate change. You can also expect our blog
to introduce you to some of the communities we work with and share information
about meetings, funding opportunities, and other CARB news.
CARB’s
environmental justice team is engaged in a broad range of programs. However,
this year in partnership with Air Districts we’re particularly busy with the implementation of AB 617, a new law
passed last year to tackle air pollution concerns in heavily impacted urban and
rural communities, including those adjacent to busy freight corridors, pinned between
freeways, ports and rail yards, and near US border crossings, where traffic
typically idles for hours on end.
AB
617 provides for:
Community
level monitoring
Statewide
strategy to reduce emissions impacting communities
Community-specific
emission reduction plans
Accelerated
retrofit of pollution control equipment at existing facilities near communities
Direct
reporting of emissions to the CARB
Increased
enforcement penalties
Regular
blog updates are meant to keep you in touch with all the new and exciting
things happening here at CARB as this program and others develop. We will also
offer some blog posts in Spanish as well.
Feedback
is welcome as we work to make this a useful platform. Email suggestions and
ideas to: communityair@arb.ca.gov or airecomunitario@arb.ca.gov.
Resources:
·
“Community
Protection Program Webpage https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/community-air-protection-program-ab617.”