Residents in Southern California can now breathe a sigh of relief as lawmakers have voted to collect millions of dollars in fees from some of the region's biggest polluters. The move will reverse a rule enacted in 2011 that allowed companies to pollute scot-free.
As the Los Angeles Times reported, since Southern California does not meet federal clean air requirements (despite having some of the nation's strictest air quality regulations), government rules mandate that big polluters must lower their pollution by 20%.
If they're unable to meet these standards, they must pay fees equivalent to their pollution levels, which go toward clean air investments in the area. However, the L.A. Times explained that since 2011, polluters have been able to skirt these rules thanks to what the paper called "controversial" accounting tactics by the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Using this loophole, the agency waived these pollution fees by setting aside that same amount of money for pollution reduction programs. Without this accounting measure in place, Southern California's biggest polluters would have had to cough up over $200 million in pollution fees over the last 10 years, per government records acquired by the nonprofit Earthjustice.
However, in 2023, Earthjustice and other environmental organizations called on the Environmental Protection Agency to demand that the air district close the loopholes in its pollution fee program, both for local communities and the environment's sake.
"Environmental racism means communities like ours have lived and worked in life-threatening conditions for generations while corporations have evaded accountability," Paola Vargas, an organizer for an environmental justice group in Long Beach, told the Times. "These polluter fees are a critical first step toward making sure polluters pay their fair share when the air is unsafe to breathe."
At a meeting in June, air regulators agreed to once again make polluters pay for the damage they cause and abolish the program that allowed them to evade the consequences.
The pollution fees will impact roughly 320 facilities, including landfills and refineries, as the Times reported.
Now that companies will be incentivized to reduce pollution, local communities can enjoy cleaner air and better health, and the planet will be a bit cooler without as many heat-trapping gases in the air.
As the saying goes, it's never too late to do the right thing.
"It's laudable that we will be finally ... complying with federal law," Jane Williams, executive director of the nonprofit California Communities Against Toxics, told the outlet.
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