California Air Resources Board

Assembly Bill (AB) 2522 (Arambula, Chapter 677, Statutes of 2008) authorizes the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (District or SJVAPCD) to assess a per-year, per-motor vehicle fee to provide funding for incentive-based programs that achieve emissions reductions needed to meet and maintain federal ambient air quality standards. As required under Health and Safety Code section 40613, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is providing this report to the California Legislature to assess the District’s use of the fee. 
CARB believes the District is spending the fees in a manner consistent with AB 2522. The District is successfully and innovatively using fees assessed pursuant to AB 2522 to fund District-run incentive-based programs that achieve emissions reductions from mobile sources that are critically needed to meet federal air quality standards. The District administers a suite of effective incentive programs, including long-standing and popular programs to repair high-polluting passenger vehicles and to replace heavy-duty trucks, agricultural tractors, and school buses, among many others. Furthermore, the District has complied with requirements of AB 2522 by convening and soliciting spending recommendations from an environmental justice advisory committee and by spending more than the minimum statutorily required amount in disproportionately impacted environmental justice communities. 
In total, fees assessed pursuant to AB 2522 have provided $346.7 million in grants for a wide range of projects in the San Joaquin Valley (Valley) from September 2011 when the fee became effective through March 17, 2022. One hundred percent of fees collected has been used for grants; no funds have been used for District administrative costs. Grant recipients have contributed an additional $732.3 million in matching funds, resulting in a total combined District and grant recipient investment of $1.08 billion. Projects funded with fees collected pursuant to AB 2522 have resulted in the elimination of 17,852 lifetime tons of harmful emissions throughout the Valley. The District has spent 72.4 percent of AB 2522 funds, or $251 million, on projects to mitigate air pollution impacts in disproportionately impacted environmental justice communities.