CA Supports Investing in Climate Change Protections, 3/25/10

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 25, 2010

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Governor-appointed committee announces support for investing in California neighborhoods hardest hit by climate change and air pollution

At Air Board hearing, an endorsement for helping with extreme weather and job loss

A statement from Nidia Bautista, Policy Director, Coalition for Clean Air:

“Today was a promising step toward California’s fulfilling its moral and legal responsibility to close the climate gap. The committee established by Governor Schwarzenegger to advise the California Air Resources Board came out emphatically in support of ensuring investments from AB 32 revenues— including a community benefits fund— for California's low-income and minority communities.

It is our moral responsibility to close the climate gap. As California takes steps to solve our climate crisis, we must invest in the neighborhoods that have suffered disproportionately from pollution and will struggle the most with the consequences of the climate crisis—including increased air pollution, heat waves, droughts and job loss.

It is also a legal responsibility. In passing the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32), the state made a promise to ensure that low-income and minority communities are protected from the climate crisis and strengthened by our efforts to tackle it. However, the California Air Resources Board has yet to fulfill this promise.

We believe the Community Benefits Fund is the ideal way to meet this need. It would direct a portion of the fees paid by polluters to help Californians who are least able to protect themselves from the heat waves, floods and lost jobs caused by the climate crisis. Specifically, the Fund would help polluted neighborhoods with job training and creation programs, pollution reduction, extreme weather preparation, and increasing the availability of buses, trains and other transportation services.

We encourage the governor, the California Air Resources Board and members of the legislature to fulfill their obligations to these Californians by taking every possible step to create a Community Benefits Fund for climate gap neighborhoods in the state.”

Allowances Under a California Cap-and-Trade Program,” are available at http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/eaac/.

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