AES Alamitos, LLC Settlement
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AES Alamitos, LLC Settles For $195,000
In June 2024, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) reached a settlement with AES Alamitos, LLC (AES), located in Long Beach, California, for the company’s violation of the Regulation for Reducing Sulfur Hexafluoride Emissions from Gas Insulated Switchgear, renamed in 2021 as the Regulation for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Gas-Insulated Equipment (SF6 GIS Regulation), as codified in the California Code of Regulations, title 17, sections 95350-95359.
CARB staff’s investigation discovered and documented that AES exceeded the maximum allowed emissions limit of 1 percent by 17.5 percent over a period of 130 days in 2020.
AES agreed to the final settlement amount of $195,000. The amount of $97,500 in civil penalty will be deposited into CARB’s Air Pollution Control Fund, which provides funding for projects and research to improve California's air quality. AES opted to fund a Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) with the remaining $97,500 of the settlement amount entitled, Landscaping for Life, with the U.S. Green Business Council – LA Chapter. This program will replace gasoline powered landscaping equipment with electric equipment while educating landscape professionals about alternatives to pesticides that harm air quality as a part of the California Native Landscape training. In addition to the reduction of exposure to air pollution from gardening equipment and emissions reductions, benefits of the training include competitive advantages of local landscapers through specialized training, alternatives to harsh pesticides, higher efficiency of workforce, sustained increased professional credibility, increased wildfire defense, and helping usher Los Angeles into a new sustainable future.
The per unit penalty was reduced from statutory maximums to be $1,500 per violation, since AES worked cooperatively with CARB to quickly resolve the investigation, had no prior or subsequent compliance issues, and implemented additional measures to reduce the potential of any future violations.