A federal district judge will hear arguments today over whether an air-pollution control agency issued invalid emission credits to businesses and public facilities in one of California's most polluted regions.
The case against South Coast Air Quality Management District -- the air pollution control agency for Orange County and parts of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties -- was brought by four environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, which argue that credits issued by the district over the last 19 years violate Clean Air Act provisions.
The AQMD has come under fire for its credit system before. In July 2008, a judge ruled that it could not sell credits to power plants without first doing a more thorough environmental analysis. In November, a judge in a separate case temporarily revoked an AQMD rule that had allowed the district to issue credits to public-service facilities and private businesses that produce less than four tons of emissions each year. The AQMD was ordered to undertake an environmental review of the practice.
Now environmentalists want a ruling on whether such a credit system can be used in any circumstance.
The district has argued that its program allows businesses to upgrade and modernize equipment without having to purchase credits on the market, where they can cost millions of dollars. Without the AQMD credits, hundreds of businesses have been unable to install equipment, some of which is meant to lower emissions, said Sam Atwood, AQMD spokesman.
"You have hundreds of businesses and public facilities whose plans to replace aging equipment, expand or modernize have come to a screeching halt for an indefinite period," Atwood said.
The district recently met with 200 business representatives from Southern California to discuss the credit freeze that is putting many of their projects in limbo.
In areas where pollution levels do not meet federal air quality standards, federal law requires developers building or modifying their facilities to first obtain emission-reduction credits, or offsets, from facilities that are shutting down or that emit less than federal limits. The credits are meant to allow a region to develop industrially without increasing its net amount of air pollution.
The district had collected credits from shut-down facilities and distributed them free to public facilities such as schools, hospitals and sewage treatment plants, as well as to private businesses that produced less than four tons of emissions each year.
