Comment Log Display

COMMENTS:

I had the opportunity to attend the Fresno workshop and while I did
not offer comments there I found the meeting very informative.  I
thought Kevin Hamilton did an excellent job in coordinating the
public comments and summarizing testimony in the context of
addressing the scoping plan.  My comments here are to address what
I think is a broader breath of concerns from a disadvantaged
community, which the City of Corcoran is classified as. One our
major concerns is that CARB assure local California communities,
like Corcoran,  that our climate change policies will reduce GHG
emissions while maintaining local jobs, keeping energy prices low,
and providing affordable food and housing. This will assure
continued community support and participation.  

To that end, our local industries have found it increasingly
difficult to keep up with the rising costs of fuel and utilities,
much of which are related to existing environmental and climate
change laws that are much stricter than those in other states.  The
food processing industry in particular is a major employer in our
City, and many of our citizens are employed by that facility and
other agricultural related industries in our community.

One aspect that I wanted to stress here is the need for incentives
and distribution of cap & trade proceeds to the industries within
disadvantaged communities, and the community itself, to assist with
generating actual direct GHG emission reductions.  Incentives have
proven to be a vehicle to drive emission reductions with related
regulatory programs and have proven in some cases to result in
earlier emission reductions than would have been required by
regulatory measures. The incentive programs administered by the San
Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District are a prime
example. These incentive program have are a proven means to keep
our industrial sector competitive and garner support for emission
reductions.  Thank you.

Dennis Tristao
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