New report shows Cap-and-Invest dollars are improving air quality in California’s most polluted communities

As Governor Newsom and legislative leaders continue to work on extending the Cap-and-Invest program, recent reports highlight how critical the program is to the state’s economic future, and how uncertainty is costing the state billions.

Turning Cap-and-Invest revenues into lasting air quality gains

Established in 2017 by Assembly Bill 617 and supported by Cap-and-Invest revenue, the Community Air Protection Program places community voices at the center of efforts to reduce air pollution and protect public health in the state’s most impacted areas.

In each of the 19 communities the program supports, CARB and the local air districts have established partnerships to develop plans addressing local pollution problems.

Funded through California’s Cap-and-Invest Program, CARB has directed $632 million to more than 9,000 incentive projects since 2017, with 85% of the funding reaching disadvantaged and low-income communities.

The projects vary widely across the state based on community priorities including:

• Swapping out thousands of dirty old lawnmowers with clean electric replacements throughout the San Joaquin Valley.

• Reducing dust exposure by funding paving of school parking lots, urban greening projects, and installing air filtration systems in schools in the Imperial Valley.

• Helping fund a first-in-the-nation electric tugboat in the Port of San Diego, which will reduce 30,000 gallons of diesel pollution per year.

The projects are producing permanent, enforceable reductions in harmful air pollutants, including reducing:

• 23,000+ tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx)— equivalent to removing about 22.5 million cars from the road for an entire year.
• 950 tons of diesel particulate matter — equivalent to annual emissions from up to two million heavy-duty trucks.
• 282,600 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions — equivalent to emissions from driving a gasoline-powered car nearly 872 million miles.

Expanding the program’s reach

Adopted in 2023, CARB’s Blueprint 2.0 expands the Community Air Protection Program to 64 communities that continue to experience high pollution burdens. This next phase focuses on:

• Supporting community-based capacity building and local emissions reduction plan development with grant funding; 48 grants have been awarded in these communities.
• Implementing community-focused enforcement strategies.
• Increasing funding flexibility and efficiency to respond to local needs, such as urban greening projects and indoor air filtration projects.

To support these communities, the Statewide Mobile Monitoring Initiative (SMMI) was launched in June. The $27 million pilot project uses specially equipped vehicles to collect block-by-block pollution data to support actions to protect public health.