California Air Resources Board

This document provides background information on the Community Air Protection (CAP) incentives data displayed in the Dashboard.

To return to the Incentives Dashboard, click here.

Definitions of terms used in CAP reporting:

Reporting: Air districts report to CARB twice a year, in May and November, in the Clean Air Reporting Log (CARL) database. Districts report details about the funded projects and show progress on expending their funds. In turn, that data is reported to the California Climate Investments Report and Tracking System (CCIRTS), as required.

Project Status: The projects displayed in the Dashboard are either “executed” or “liquidated.” A project is considered executed if it is under contract with the applicant and the district has dedicated funds to the project. A project is considered liquidated if it is paid-in-full and it is operational.

In addition to project liquidation described above, there are fiscal year liquidation deadlines. Typically, districts have between 4 and 5 years to liquidate all of the funds awarded in a given fiscal year.

Administrative Funds: Districts are allowed to spend a portion of their award to administer the program, including costs such as staffing and outreach. The administrative amount depends on the appropriation language and size of the district, but it is typically up to 6.25% for the larger districts and 12.5% for the smaller districts.

Earned Interest: The air districts keep their unspent CAP incentives in interest bearing accounts. In turn, interest earned on CAP incentives is also spent on eligible projects.

Funded Engines: Most projects involve scrapping an old dirty engine and replacing it with cleaner technology and some equipment may have multiple engines replaced. However, there are some projects that do not have an engine replacement, such as unique community identified projects and infrastructure; in which case the funded engines will be zero or blank.

Pollutants: Although projects may result in a variety of public benefits, the Dashboard presents emission reductions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), reactive organic gases (ROG), fine particulate matter (PM), and greenhouse gases (GHG) for engine combustion. Likewise, some projects may not have a calculated emission reduction, such as infrastructure or air filtration, but rather enable emission reductions or reduce exposure.

The total NOx, ROG and PM emission reductions are in standard tons over the course of the project life. The Dashboard also presents emission reductions in tons per year (tons/yr).In this case, the calculated annual emission reductions are multiplied by the project life, which is also the contact period. The total GHG emissions are presented in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents (MTCO2e) over the life of the project.

Source Categories: CAP incentives provide funding opportunities for a variety of project types. The CAP Guidelines provide eligibility for community identified projects (CIP), stationary source projects, hexavalent chrome plating, and projects at schools such as air filtration systems, composite wood projects and zero-emission lawn and garden equipment replacement projects. However, the majority of projects funded with CAP incentives are mobile source projects under the Carl Moyer program. The table below provides a summary of the percent of funds spent in the different source category groups through November 2021.

Mobile source projects include the replacement and/or repower of vehicles, equipment, and engines. These categories are on-road, off-road, marine vessels, locomotive, light-duty cars scrap, lawn and garden equipment and infrastructure projects. Below is a description of the types of vehicles, equipment and project types included in each source category group:

• Off-Road Agricultural equipment includes stationary and portable agricultural pumps, as well as a variety of agricultural equipment such as tractors, balers and sprayers.
• On-Road Heavy Duty equipment includes school and transit buses, drayage, refuse, and Proposition 1B funded trucks, among others.
• Locomotives include switchers. line haul and passenger trains.
• Marine Vessels include a verity of vessels such as tug, ferry/excursion and fishing boats. 
• Off-Road Other combine multiple off-road categories including off-road cargo handling, off-road construction, off-road airport ground support and lawn and garden projects, as well as off-road other.
• Infrastructure includes charging stations and agricultural pump line extensions.
• Community Identified Projects include a wide verity of projects that are often designed to meet specific local community needs. These projects must be individually approved by CARB.
• Air Filtration and Composite Wood are projects at local schools.

The Dashboard is based on semi-annual updates reported to California Climate Investments and is provided in addition to published program status reports. The dashboard is a work in progress and will be updated and enhanced over time. Please help us improve by providing feedback.

[1] California Climate Investments Funding Guidelines: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/documents/california-climate-investmen…

[2]Community Air Protection Incentives Guidelines: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/community-air-protection-incen…

[3] Carl Moyer Program: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/guidelines-carl-moyer

[4] Proposition 1B Programs: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/proposition-1b-goods-movement-…

[5] The Legislature extended the original June 30, 2021 and 2022 deadlines for the FY 2017-18 and 2018-19 funds.

[6] Original appropriation of $245 million reduced due to low Cap-and-Trade auction proceeds in 2020.