The Power of Smart Regulation at BAAQMD

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A Clean Air Regulatory Advocate For Millions in the S.F. Bay Area

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 The Mission Statement for BAAQMD reads as follows:

The Air District aims to create a healthy breathing environment for every Bay Area resident while protecting and improving public health, air quality, and the global climate.

That seems like a straightforward determination to improve the environment for humans, reduce medical costs, and participate in climate change defensive measures.  

What it does-

The BAAQMD performs continuous monitoring and applies data analysis of air quality and emissions sites within the district.  It also creates computer models of air quality based on both.  This is the “climate math” that will help identify the next round of cost effective emissions reductions that are as fair to all as possible.

The regulatory function is occasionally unpopular, but it is the only way to make improvements in the quality of life for California.  We have already learned that “voluntary” emission reductions by industry either has not happened or is so slow as to not be detectable.

The BAAQMD is just another example of California’s progressive embrace of spreading green living far and wide.  And as air pollution becomes an increasingly important target to reduce climate change, geothermal heat pumps will gain greater acceptance for their lack of emissions and their elimination of evaporative water use in cooling towers.

—Bill Martin