California Air Resources Board

The Volkswagen (VW) Environmental Mitigation Trust (Trust) provides about $423 million for California to mitigate the excess nitrogen oxide (NO_X) emissions caused by VW's use of illegal emissions testing defeat devices in certain VW diesel vehicles. The Trust is a component of partial settlements with VW and is enumerated in the first Partial Consent Decree as Appendix D. The Trust provides funding opportunities for specified eligible actions that are focused mostly on "scrap and replace" projects for the heavy-duty sector, including on-road freight trucks, transit and shuttle buses, school buses, forklifts and port cargo handling equipment, commercial marine vessels, and freight switcher locomotives. 

As required by the Consent Decree, California developed a Beneficiary Mitigation Plan (Plan) through an extensive public process. The Board approved the Plan in May 2018, and CARB reported it to the Trustee, Wilmington Trust, N.A., on June 28, 2018. The Plan describes the eligible mitigation actions from the list specified in the Consent Decree that will be funded from the State's allocation of the Trust. Senate Bill (SB) 92, passed in June 2017, directs CARB to strive to ensure that 35 percent of California’s allocation benefit low-income or disadvantaged communities that are disproportionately impacted by air pollution. The approved Plan exceeds that target; at least 50 percent of the total funding is expected to benefit low-income or disadvantaged communities.

The first installment of funding is currently underway. Additional program announcements and public meetings will be added to this site when available.