Air District and Sierra Club Team Up to Implement Climate Protection Plan

 The SLO County Air Pollution Control District Board awarded $10,000 to the Sierra Club from the County's Green House Gas Emission Reduction Grant Program. The Club's Santa Lucia Chapter will administer the funds to conduct oversight and maintenance of a Technical Assistance Program that will aid local governments in developing green house gas inventories and action plans for emission reductions.  This action was part of a larger grant program that will provide a total of $137,000 to local governments to assist with the implementation of the approved GHG Reduction Plans.

 The Air District is acting to fulfill the mandate of Assembly Bill 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. "Significant action is required by every sector of society statewide to meet California's targets of reducing green house gases to 1990 levels by 2020, and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050," said Larry Allen, APCD Director. "The APCD Board adopted a Climate Protection Plan in 2005 which, when put into effect, will also reduce harmful local air pollutants and provide public health benefits as well as curbing the county's green house gas emissions."

 "The climate change initiatives of the Sierra Club and the APCD have been on parallel tracks for several years," said Karen Merriam, Santa Lucia Chapter Chair. "The APCD's Climate Protection Plan encourages local governments to join the Cities for Climate Protection Program and the Sierra Club's 'Cool Cities' program seeks to sign on cities to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. Both programs include provisions for development of green house gas emission inventories and implementation of action plans for the reduction of GHG emissions. So this was a perfect fit." 

Sierra Club will be working with Cal Poly faculty and students in the Empower Poly Coalition, consisting of over a dozen campus sustainability clubs, who will gain real world experience in curbing global warming as members of technical resource teams assigned to each local jurisdiction within the county under the Sierra Club's oversight. Students will receive class credit for participating in the program.

 A Local Government Implementation Program will provide funding to the cities and county once final GHG Reduction Plans have been adopted in the various jurisdictions. The APCD Board has allocated a total of $137,000 to assist local governments in the implementation of their GHG Reduction Plans.