California Air Resources Board
Self-Description July 2008
The California Air Resources Board, also known as (CARB) is the “clean air agency” in the government of California. Established in 1967 in the Mulford-Carrell Act, combining the Bureau of Air Sanitation and the Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board, the ARB is a department within the cabinet-level California Environmental Protection Agency.
The stated goals of CARB include attaining and maintaining healthy air quality; protecting the public from exposure to toxic air contaminants; and providing innovative approaches for complying with air pollution rules and regulations.
The governing board is made up of eleven members appointed by the state’s governor. Half of the appointees are experts in professional and science fields such as medicine, chemistry, physics, meteorology, engineering, business, and law. Others represent the pollution control agencies of regional districts within California - Los Angeles region, San Francisco Bay area, San Diego, the San Joaquin Valley, and other districts.
CARB, which has an annual budget of US$759 million (as at July 2008) has nine major Divisions:
- Administrative Services Division
- Enforcement Division
- Mobile Source Control Division
- Mobile Source Operations Division
- Monitoring and Laboratory Division
- Office of Information Services
- Planning and Technical Support Division
- Research Division
- Stationary Source Division
Planning and Technical Support Division
The Planning and Technical Support Division assesses the extent of California’s air quality problems and the progress being made to abate them, coordinates state-wide development of clean air plans and maintains databases pertinent to air quality and emissions. The Division’s technical support work provides a basis for clean air plans and CARB’s regulatory programs. This support includes management and interpretation of emission inventories, air quality data, meteorological data and of air quality modeling.
The Planning and Technical Support Division has five branches:
- Emission Inventory Branch
- Modeling & Meteorology Branch
- Air Quality Data Branch
- Air Quality & Transportation Planning Branch
- Mobile Source Analysis Branch
Alternative Fuel Vehicle Incentive Program
Alternative Fuel Vehicle Incentive Program (also known as Fueling Alternatives) is funded by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), offered throughout the State of California and administered by the California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE).
Plan
California has taken a major step forward on its global warming fight by unveiling an ambitious plan for clean cars, renewable energy and stringent caps on big polluting industries. CARB staff will present a series of proposals that would become law in 2012, with some measures going into effect two years earlier.
http://www.arb.ca.gov