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PROPOSAL:

Appropriate Funds From Undesignated Fund Balance to be Used to Develop Enforcement Strategies for Market-Based Programs

SYNOPSIS:

U.S. EPA awarded AQMD with a grant to develop enforcement strategies for market-based programs. The grant provides funding in the amount of $70,100 to organize, support, and host a national task force composed of members from various state and local air quality regulatory agencies. $12,900 was used during the 1997-98 fiscal year for initial project tasks. This action is to appropriate the remaining $57,200 to the FY 1998-99 Budget to complete the project.

COMMITTEE:

Administrative, June 19, 1998, Reviewed

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

1. Recognize $57,200 in revenue from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

2. Appropriate $57,200 from the Undesignated Fund Balance to the Stationary Source Compliance Major Object in the following accounts: $25,000 Travel; $3,200 Other Expenses; $10,000 Communications; $6,000 Office Expense; $3,000 Postage; and $10,000 Professional/Special Services.

Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Acting Executive Officer

Background

U.S. EPA has provided AQMD with a grant to develop enforcement strategies for market-based programs to incentivize emission reductions. AQMD is hosting a series of task force meetings and conference calls with other California air districts, various state air quality regulatory agencies, and EPA to facilitate this development effort. The grant funds will be used to defray the expenses of travel, lodging, and meals of task force members, long distance telecommunications, materials, postage, and a project facilitator.

AQMD Responsibility

Stationary Source Compliance will organize and host the task force meetings. AQMD staff from other offices will also participate in the task force meetings and provide input and assistance. Stationary Source Compliance will prepare an enforcement guidance document for market incentive programs, which will be based upon the information generated through the task force process.

Benefits

Traditional enforcement techniques are not always applicable to market incentive programs. Therefore, every jurisdiction which implements a market incentive program needs to have an appropriate compliance program to ensure that the incentive program goals are achieved and that all emission credits reflect real, permanent, enforceable, quantifiable, surplus emission reductions.

The Enforcement Strategies for Market-Based Programs Task Force represents a mechanism for the various agencies implementing market incentive programs to pool their experience and resources in identifying enforcement strategies which are well suited to various types of incentive programs. This consolidated approach will be much more streamlined and efficient than for each agency to address these issues independently. It will also help to ensure that the resulting guidance document reflects the needs and experiences of agencies throughout the nation.

Resource Impacts

This supplement to the FY 1998-99 Budget will have no net effect on AQMD’s fiscal resources because the funds it represents are provided by EPA. Specifically, this supplement will appropriate $57,200 from the Undesignated Fund Balance to the Stationary Source Compliance Major Object in the following accounts: $25,000 Travel; $3,200 Other Expenses; $10,000 Communications; $6,000 Office Expense; $3,000 Postage; and $10,000 Professional/Special Services.

This constitutes a supplement to the FY 1998-99 Budget. Therefore, the required 30-day public notice of a proposed supplement to the FY 1998-99 Budget was published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, the San Bernardino Sun Telegram, the Riverside Press Enterprise, the Santa Ana Register, and the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

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