DIAMOND BAR, Calif. - The Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC) and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) hosted "Clean Transportation Funding: The Road Ahead," a one-day forum at Cal State Los Angeles on June 29. The event brought together leading voices in air quality and transportation to reflect on more than 20 years of clean air projects in the South Coast Air Basin and to look ahead to see what is on the horizon for the next 20 years.
The day's first panel seated representatives from the alternative fuels arena, including plug-in electric vehicles, natural gas and fuel cell vehicles, as well as an advisor for the California Energy Commission working on these issues, who presented their perspectives on where the alternative fuels market is today and where it will be in the next two decades. Speaking to the nearly 100 attendees at the event, the panelists all agreed that deploying significantly more alternative fuel vehicles in California is a necessary component to meet the state's air quality goals, and that government policy was needed to push the technologies forward.
Another panel examined the regulatory strategies needed for achieving California's air quality objectives. Leaders from air quality and transportation agencies, as well as the state's petroleum industry, discussed the need to think about the long term benefits of a project, rather than only looking short term, even in a difficult economy, and that pilot projects that demonstrate zero and near zero emission technologies can be a useful tool to show how these technologies will benefit us all in the long run in terms of air quality and improved transportation systems. Panelists agreed that major changes are ahead in transportation systems, including less reliance on personal vehicles, and that agencies need to reflect this new thinking.
The final panel of the day gave MSRC project partners the opportunity to share with the audience their success stories of how the MSRC's Clean Transportation Funding helped them go above and beyond meeting their clean air goals. Two small business owners - Charles Feder, the owner of Rossmoor Pastries in Signal Hill, and Tim Nelligan, President of Go Natural Gas, a start-up CNG fueling station company - spoke about how their fueling dispensers would not have been possible without the support and funding from the MSRC.
Waste Management's fleet manager for the western region reflected upon how the MSRC helped fund WM's first LNG station in Long Beach in 1992, which helped start the company down the path of switching to natural gas trucks, and it is now celebrating its 1,000th CNG vehicle. A representative from the City of Anaheim spoke about how the MSRCs funding of a traffic signal synchronization project led to a partnership with the City of Fullerton that has helped improved traffic flow between the cities and reduce emissions from idling cars.
We were so excited to see the great turnout for the forum, said Greg Winterbottom, Chair of the MSRC and OCTA Board Member. We were especially glad to see those folks who do not know a lot about the MSRC at the event because it gave them the chance to learn about the MSRCs programs which are very forward-thinking. The MSRC members are dedicated to the green idea and that we need to look for alternatives, which is what the MSRC does best. Today gave us the opportunity to talk about transportation alternatives, which we all need to think more about no matter what sector we come from.
The MSRC allocates Clean Transportation Funding from a $4 surcharge on vehicle license fees, specifically to be used for local projects designed to reduce air pollution from mobile sources such as cars, trucks and buses. Thirty cents of every surcharge dollar goes into the MSRC fund. More than $250 million has been distributed for air pollution-reduction programs since the MSRC was established in 1990. Clean Transportation Funding is heavily leveraged with investments from government agencies, as well as private sources, with billions of additional dollars contributed to projects throughout the region.
Membership of the MSRC is made up of representatives from the transportation agencies of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties as well as the Southern California Association of Governments, a designated regional rideshare agency, the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. For more information, please visit the MSRCs website at www.CleanTransportationFunding.org
Speakers included:
The day's first panel seated representatives from the alternative fuels arena, including plug-in electric vehicles, natural gas and fuel cell vehicles, as well as an advisor for the California Energy Commission working on these issues, who presented their perspectives on where the alternative fuels market is today and where it will be in the next two decades. Speaking to the nearly 100 attendees at the event, the panelists all agreed that deploying significantly more alternative fuel vehicles in California is a necessary component to meet the state's air quality goals, and that government policy was needed to push the technologies forward.
Another panel examined the regulatory strategies needed for achieving California's air quality objectives. Leaders from air quality and transportation agencies, as well as the state's petroleum industry, discussed the need to think about the long term benefits of a project, rather than only looking short term, even in a difficult economy, and that pilot projects that demonstrate zero and near zero emission technologies can be a useful tool to show how these technologies will benefit us all in the long run in terms of air quality and improved transportation systems. Panelists agreed that major changes are ahead in transportation systems, including less reliance on personal vehicles, and that agencies need to reflect this new thinking.
The final panel of the day gave MSRC project partners the opportunity to share with the audience their success stories of how the MSRC's Clean Transportation Funding helped them go above and beyond meeting their clean air goals. Two small business owners - Charles Feder, the owner of Rossmoor Pastries in Signal Hill, and Tim Nelligan, President of Go Natural Gas, a start-up CNG fueling station company - spoke about how their fueling dispensers would not have been possible without the support and funding from the MSRC.
Waste Management's fleet manager for the western region reflected upon how the MSRC helped fund WM's first LNG station in Long Beach in 1992, which helped start the company down the path of switching to natural gas trucks, and it is now celebrating its 1,000th CNG vehicle. A representative from the City of Anaheim spoke about how the MSRCs funding of a traffic signal synchronization project led to a partnership with the City of Fullerton that has helped improved traffic flow between the cities and reduce emissions from idling cars.
We were so excited to see the great turnout for the forum, said Greg Winterbottom, Chair of the MSRC and OCTA Board Member. We were especially glad to see those folks who do not know a lot about the MSRC at the event because it gave them the chance to learn about the MSRCs programs which are very forward-thinking. The MSRC members are dedicated to the green idea and that we need to look for alternatives, which is what the MSRC does best. Today gave us the opportunity to talk about transportation alternatives, which we all need to think more about no matter what sector we come from.
The MSRC allocates Clean Transportation Funding from a $4 surcharge on vehicle license fees, specifically to be used for local projects designed to reduce air pollution from mobile sources such as cars, trucks and buses. Thirty cents of every surcharge dollar goes into the MSRC fund. More than $250 million has been distributed for air pollution-reduction programs since the MSRC was established in 1990. Clean Transportation Funding is heavily leveraged with investments from government agencies, as well as private sources, with billions of additional dollars contributed to projects throughout the region.
Membership of the MSRC is made up of representatives from the transportation agencies of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties as well as the Southern California Association of Governments, a designated regional rideshare agency, the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. For more information, please visit the MSRCs website at www.CleanTransportationFunding.org
Speakers included:
- Michael Antonovich, Los Angeles County Supervisor and MSRC Member
- Gregory Winterbottom, MSRC Chair and OCTA Board Member
- Richard Katz, LA Metro Board Chair
- Terry Tamminen, former Cabinet Secretary for Governor Schwarzenegger (key note speaker)
- Dr. Joseph Lyou, AQMD Board Member (moderator)
- John Longville, San Bernardino City Council candidate
- Earl Withycombe, MSRC Member and Air Resources Board Air Quality Planning staff
- Peter Greenwald, Senior Policy Advisor, AQMD
- John ODell, editor of Green Car Advisor for Edmunds.com (moderator)
- Cathy Reheis Boyd, President, Western States Petroleum Association
- Tim Olson, Advisor, California Energy Commission
- Diane Wittenberg, Executive Director, California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative
- Tim Carmichael, President, California Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition
- Catherine Dunwoody, Executive Director, California Fuel Cell Partnership
- Adriano Martinez, Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council (moderator)
- Marty Tufte, Western Region Fleet Manager, Waste Management
- Tim Nelligan, President, Go Natural Gas
- Charles Feder, Owner, Rossmoor Pastries
- John Thai, Chief Traffic Engineer, City of Anaheim