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California Air Resources Board

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California Air Resources Board (CARB) is the "clean air agency" of the state of California in the United States. Established originally as the Air Resources Board in 1967, it is known for setting extremely stringent standards for air quality.

Its stated goals are to:

  • Attain and maintain healthy air quality.
  • Conduct research into the causes of and solutions to air pollution.
  • Systematically attack the serious problem caused by motor vehicles, which are the major causes of air pollution in the State.

The governing board is made up of eleven members appointed by the state's governor, and the chairman is the only full-time member.

Half of the appointees are experts in professional and science fields such as medicine, chemistry, physics, meteorology, engineering, business, and law. Others represent the pollution control agencies of regional districts within California - Los Angeles region, San Francisco Bay area, San Diego, and the San Joaquin Valley, and one for other districts.

CARB's Organizational Structure

Carb has nine major divisions:<ref>CARB's Divisions</ref>

  • Administrative Services Division
  • Enforcement Division
  • Mobile Source Control Division
  • Mobile Source Operations Division
  • Monitoring and Laboratory Division
  • Office of Information Services
  • Planning and Technical Support Division
  • Research Division
  • Stationary Source Division

Planning and Technical Support Division

The Planning and Technical Support Division assesses the extent of California's air quality problems and the progress being made to abate them, coordinates statewide development of clean air plans and maintains databases pertinent to air quality and emissions. The Division's technical support work provides a basis for clean air plans and CARB's regulatory programs. This support includes management and interpretation of emission inventories, air quality data, meteorological data and of air quality modeling.<ref name=PTSD>CARB's Planning and Technical Support Division</ref>

The Planning and Technical Support Division has five branches:

Atmospheric Modeling & Support Section

The Atmospheric Modeling & Support Section is one of three sections within the Modeling & Meteorology Branch. The other two sections are the Regional Air Quality Modeling Section and the Meteorology Section.<ref name=PTSD/>

The air quality and atmospheric pollution dispersion models routinely used by this Section include a number of the models recommended by the U.S. EPA.<ref>Compilation of atmospheric dispersion models</ref> The Section also uses models which were either developed by CARB or whose development was funded by CARB, such as:

  • CALPUFF — Originally developed by the Sigma Research Company (SRC) under contract to CARB. Currently maintained by the TRC Solution Company under contract to the U.S. EPA.
  • CALGRID — Developed by CARB and currently maintained by CARB.<ref>CALGRID Model</ref>
  • SARMAP — Developed by CARB and currently maintained by CARB.<ref>CARB's SARMAP Model</ref>

Role in Reducing Greenhouse Gases

California Climate Change Legislation & Executive Orders includes <ref>http://climatechange.ca.gov/documents/index.html#legislation</ref>:

AB 32

In September 2006, the California legislature passed AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006<ref>Text of AB 32</ref> with the goal of reducing man-made California greenhouse gas emissions (1.4% of global emissions in 2004<ref>Brown, Susan J. "California Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trends and Selected Policy Options" (Slide presentation). California Energy Commission. [1]</ref>) back to 1990 emission levels by 2020. The legislation grants the Air Resource Board extraordinary powers to set policies, draw up regulations, lead the enforcement effort, levy fines and fees to finance it and punish violators. The technical and regulatory requirements are far reaching. Some of this sweeping regulation is being challenged in the courts. By making clean low-carbon technology more attractive, and giving California a head start on its development, it has the potential to significantly affecting the long-term prosperity and lifestyle of all Californians.

AB 1493

It is the successor bill to AB 1058, was enacted on July 22, 2002 by Governor Gray Davis and mandates that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) develop and implement greenhouse gas limits for vehicles beginning in model year 2009. Subsequently, as directed by AB 1493, the CARB on September 24, 2004 approved regulations limiting the amount of greenhouse gas that may be released from new passenger cars, SUVs and pickup trucks sold in California in model year 2009. The automotive industry has sued, claiming this is simply a way to impose gas mileage standards on automobiles--a field already preempted by federal rules. The case is working its way through the court system. The CARB staff's analysis has concluded that the new rules will result in savings for vehicle buyers through lower fuel expenses that will more than offset the increased initial costs of new vehicles. Critics claim that these will only work if serious reductions are made in automobile and truck sizes.

California standard uses grams per mile average CO2-equivalent value, which means that emissions of the various greenhouse gases are weighted to take into account their differing impact on climate change (i.e. maximum 323 in 2009 and 205 g/mi in 2016 for passenger cars) <ref>Notice, the final rulemaking package was approved by OAL and filed with the Secretary of the State on September 15, 2005 -it became operative on October 15, 2005- and Final Regulation Order that amendments the California Code of Regulations.</ref>.


States with similar limits are: New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine and New Jersey.

See also

References

<references/>

External links

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