On Friday the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) will take up the Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP), the regional blueprint for achieving air quality standards throughout the five-county South Coast Basin by 2031.

The current draft AQMP, an exhaustive, comprehensive document, has been four years in the making. It encompasses inputs, proposals and policy recommendations of Air District board and staff, the environmental community and businesses — large and small.

In sum, this document has been reviewed, analyzed, modified and edited repeatedly. It truly represents a compromise document — one which, most importantly, achieves the mandated clean air goals. Not surprisingly, all stakeholder groups have some consternation about the details.

As the founding CEO of BizFed, a diverse grassroots alliance that amplifies the voice of business throughout Southern California, we have actively participated in the AQMP’s extensive public hearing process for the past four years to ensure that this “blueprint” maintains some balance with the real prospect of implementation.

The AQMP acknowledges what SCAQMD board members and staff have stated — that the region cannot hope to meet its air quality goals simply by regulating stationary sources (from industrial complexes to dry cleaners) alone. The plan rightfully recognizes that reaching the region’s air quality goals cannot be achieved without reductions from mobile sources (primarily cars and trucks), which the SCAQMD has no authority to regulate and which are primarily regulated by the state and federal governments.

In recognition of this reality, the current draft AQMP utilizes a new approach. Part of the plan focuses on available, proven and cost-effective alternatives to help clean the air in the future — referred to as incentives. This incentives-based framework is the most viable approach to cleaning our air while also protecting and promoting job creation in Southern California.

The first AQMP Advisory Group meeting was held on Jan. 29, 2013, and after four years of development there are elements in the plan about which the business community still has deep concerns.

Countless hours of work on the part of SCAQMD staff and stakeholders have gone into the development of the 2016 AQMP including 163 advisory/stakeholder meetings (15 advisory group meetings in addition to numerous white paper working groups, Science, Technology and Modeling Peer Review meetings, and California Environmental Quality Act hearings).

We believe it is time to move forward with the AQMP and call on the SCAQMD board to vote Friday to approve the plan as presented by the SCAQMD staff.

The result of four years of staff and stakeholder input is a plan that demonstrates attainment of air quality standards in a manner that will not likely stifle economic activity in the district. This AQMP went through extensive public review, including CEQA review and a socioeconomic impact report. The rule-making process is complicated and lengthy and moving the AQMP forward now will enable Southern California to continue its progress toward meeting the air quality standards we all desire.

Any substantive, last-minute changes coming before the board now would only serve to undermine the long, thoughtful, transparent, expert staff and public process that has occurred.

We must all cry out to air district board members to do their job and adopt this aggressive AQMP as proposed, to ensure our region’s air continues to improve. Reject last-minute changes now. Delays cannot be tolerated. It’s well past time for games to be played on this plan when it comes to our families and businesses being able to breathe and thrive here.

It is critical that the AQMP balance both the environmental and the economic needs of the South Coast Air Basin. Our region cannot afford to lose jobs and become even less competitive economically, both of which could happen should the district change its course on Friday.

History has demonstrated that it’s possible to both improve the environment and protect all-important jobs and economic progress in the South Coast Basin. Anyone who remembers the air quality in the 1970s versus today can see the striking difference. The staff-drafted version of the AQMP does quite a bit more.

Therefore, BizFed, on behalf of our 160-plus businesses organizations representing 325,000 employers and 3 million-plus employees, urges the SCAQMD board to adopt the AQMP as proposed by staff, and move forward to implementation.

Tracy Hernandez is the founding CEO of BizFed, the Los Angeles County Business Federation.

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