California lawmakers are once again considering legislation to compel air districts to adopt more aggressive regulations in some of the nation's most polluted regions—such as the San Joaquin Valley. The latest attempt folds in environmental justice calls to limit warehouse development in the Inland Empire.
Air districts—often criticized for being too soft as well as too heavy handed—are defending their actions and pointing to hard-won progress over decades.
Assemblymember Corey Jackson of Moreno Valley has narrowed his focus to air districts overseeing basins with valleys. He authored Assembly Bill 1857 to require the Air Resources Board (CARB) to take over management of those districts by adopting its own regulations to improve local air quality.
Jackson is charging that disadvantaged communities in his Los Angeles area district and in the state's most productive agricultural region have been neglected and face unjust burdens. During an Assembly Natural Resources Committee hearing on AB 1857 last week, Jackson pointed out that his district is usually in the top five for the nation's worst air quality and suffers the highest rates of lung cancer and for children in emergency rooms with uncontrolled asthma.
"What if you had an air quality management district that no longer was trusted by its people that they tried to serve?" Jackson asked his colleagues. "We're continuously being told that we're doing everything possible, there's nothing else that can be done."
He shared disappointment with "the lack of discussion people are willing to have about such a serious issue."
Brendan Twohig, California Air Pollution Control Officers AssociationAir districts are not denying the immense air quality problem facing communities, according to Brendan Twohig, legislative advocate for the California Air Pollution Control Officers Association. Twohig responded that air districts are "doing all we can" and "leaving no stone unturned."
He explained that CARB has already considered the unique geographies of each valley in designating air basins and establishing air quality requirements, and that it closely collaborates with the districts as well as U.S. EPA, which sets federal attainment standards for the basins. He argued that "tremendous progress" has been made due to some of the country's most stringent regulations and in combination with billions of state, federal and private industry dollars invested into incentive grants.
Twohig warned that AB 1857 would slow that progress by adding more complexity to the process. He called for the Legislature to instead maintain funding for AB 617 grants targeting the most vulnerable communities. He also hoped to find more funding for CARB's FARMER program, which helps to clean up dirty agricultural equipment.
"We are doing the hard work, the boots on the ground," said Twohig.
Yet progressive lawmakers on the committee supported the push to strengthen regulations and boost state oversight. Asm. Rebecca Bauer-Kahan of Orinda noted that her tri-valley district has a similar level of industrial activity to Jackson's, centering on the Port of Oakland, but does not face the same air quality concerns. She pushed for amendments to tailor the bill to specific valleys with the greater need.
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Bauer-Kahan then blasted Twohig for dismissing Jackson's concerns over his community by pivoting to incentive grants. Twohig, reeling, asserted that strong regulations—along with incentives—are "a huge component." Bauer-Kahan pushed further, likening the situation to state intervention for a failing school district, and argued that CARB should "supplant a failing air district."
Other lawmakers reasoned that Jackson should refine the scope to identify more specific regulatory goals and to work with CARB on any potential fixes outside of the legislative process.
Similar arguments played out at this time last year over a bill targeting the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. Asm. Joaquin Arambula of Fresno lambasted the agency for perceived failures in holding polluters accountable. AB 985 would have audited the district over its selection of businesses eligible for emission reduction credits. Democrats in neighboring districts opposed it. Arambula later narrowed the bill’s scope to no longer affect the pricing or availability of the credits, but failed to gather enough votes to pass it out of the Legislature.
Arambula had pushed the same legislation in 2022 without avail.
Another bill last year, AB 849, would have expanded an emissions reduction program housed at CARB to enable other agencies to promulgate and enforce air quality regulations.
The state transportation department, CalTrans, for example, would have been responsible for regulating medium- and heavy-duty trucks on routes that pass through communities vulnerable to the emission impacts.
Industries in the Inland Empire, meanwhile, have faced considerable scrutiny from both the Legislature and the local air district. In January, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas stepped in to halt a bill that would have proposed a thousand-foot buffer for new warehouses near homes.
On the regulatory side, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which has jurisdiction over Moreno Valley, has advanced aggressive regulations to cut emissions from freight locomotives and at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
At the same time, businesses have pleaded with lawmakers for relief from a swath of new regulations at multiple levels of government that target warehouse development near Southern California's ports. During an Assembly informational hearing last year, Matthew Hargrove, president and CEO of the California Business Properties Association, detailed the many obstacles to building warehouses.
Companies must analyze the potential air quality, health and climate impacts to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. Hargrove said CEQA is “making it harder and harder to develop the things that we need to strengthen our goods movement sector."
A third of the buildings under construction are in municipalities that have proposed or enacted moratoriums on industrial development. The city of Pomona, for example, has banned warehouses altogether. Pushing warehouses further from the ports leads to more fuel emissions, while the trucks still drive through the impacted communities, he argued.
While lawmakers have yet to target warehouses in new legislation this session, the role of air districts will continue to face scrutiny as AB 1857 navigates the regulatory process. The bill faces a critical policy gatekeeper next, with the Appropriations Committee considering the potential financial impact to the state, amid a deepening budget crisis.
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