Title

We Used to Be Like China: How California Is Achieving the Seemingly Impossible - Clean Air, Economic Progress, Vibrant Development - and, While at It, Setting the Stage for Deep De-Carbonization of Transportation

Time

1:40 p.m. – 3:00 p.m

Location

1605 Tilia Street, Room 1103, West Village

Abstract

California started down the path of aggressive control of smog-forming pollution cars in the 1960s. Then, car exhaust emerged as a culprit for LA’s pressing air pollution and subsequently the focus of nascent government efforts for air quality management. From those early days, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) was born in 1967. The agency rapidly worked to develop the first-in-the-world emission control program for motor vehicles and, in the process, set the state to become a global example of environmental stewardship. Vehicle emission control has now spread all over the world, including in China. Exploding economic development and a rapidly growing population has led many Chinese cities to experience some of the worst air pollution in recorded history. Realizing that the lesson learned in California could help China, Governor Brown’s Administration has made collaboration with China on environmental protection a priority. CARB is leading these collaborative efforts in the area of sustainable transportation and clean cars and trucks, including Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV). Our growing partnership with China has given CARB staff a unique opportunity to reflect and examine “how we got here” in terms of the measurable environmental progress the state has made. In order to formulate recommendations for our Chinese colleagues, we have considered the policies and regulations for emission control that have been most effective for cleaning the air and reducing greenhouse gas pollution from the transportation sector.

California’s widely recognized low emission vehicle (LEV) program, our landmark diesel control program, requirements for clean and low-carbon fuels, the first-in-the nation standards for car and truck GHG emissions, the ZEV Mandate, and the State’s low carbon transportation investments are all policies that have led to the cleanest engines, equipment, cars, trucks, and buses in the nation and the world. This seminar will highlight some of these key programs, the integration of the lessons learned into the cooperation between California and China, and how the state’s past actions are helping it chart a future for even cleaner air for all Californians, millions of ZEVs, deep carbon reductions, and halving the use of petroleum for transportation in 15 years.

Biographical Sketch

Alberto Ayala, Deputy Executive Officer, California Air Resources Board (CARB), directs the full range of policy, regulatory, and research efforts of CARB’s staff who is focused on California’s programs for clean, zero-emission, and low-carbon transportation; state-of-the-art ambient monitoring for air and climate pollution; and a widely recognized motor vehicle emissions and fuels testing program. In this capacity, Alberto oversees more than 500 staff of the Monitoring and Laboratory Division, the Mobile Source Control Division, and the Emission Compliance, Automotive Regulations and Science Division. Prior to CARB, he was a Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at West Virginia University and a Design Engineer for Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical. He holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from UC Davis and his internships were with GE Global Research, the California Energy Commission, and the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel Laboratory at UC Davis.