Air Pollution Officials Act to Help Small Firms : Environment: The district says transferring emission ‘credits’ earned by large companies can cut costs for other businesses.

Ventura County’s Air Pollution Control District is moving toward revising a regulation with the goal of helping small firms that otherwise might be locked out of the county by the cost of pollution control.

Under the plan, a portion of the clean-air credits earned by large companies that reduce their air pollution beyond legal requirements would be set aside for the benefit of small companies.

The amount initially set aside would be up to 25% of the pollution tonnage saved by the larger companies. County businesses that earn air-emission credits can use them for expansion or to sell to other firms.

Richard Baldwin, who heads the Air Pollution Control District, said the sums paid for credits vary, but he estimated the going rate at about $10,000 a ton.

Baldwin acknowledged that larger companies would have to foot part of the bill for smaller companies. He said smaller companies might otherwise be unable to turn a profit in Ventura County because of the cost of pollution control.

“It’s the most equitable way to do it we’ve found so far,” he said.

He said other air pollution control districts in the state, including the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which governs Los Angeles and three other counties, are adopting similar plans.

But some leaders of large companies in the county criticized the proposed revision as unfair to big and medium-sized businesses.

Clifton Simonson, president of Ojai-based D&S; Industry Services, which manages oil wells for independent owners, called the provision “robbing from the rich to give to the poor.”

“We are very much opposed,” he said.

Gene Daffern, president of the Ventura Chamber of Commerce, praised the district’s efforts to help small businesses. But he said that the provision, in essence, requires large companies to subsidize smaller companies.

“I have empathy for small companies because I work in a small company,” Daffern said. “But there is something inside of me that violently objects to the mandate of law requiring one free-enterprise operation to subsidize another.”

But Baldwin pointed out that about 20% of the emission credits are not available for business use under current regulations. To earn one ton of credits, firms are required to reduce emissions by 1.2 tons. Under the proposal, which is part of a revision to the county’s regulation on new sources of air pollution, the APCD would take about 25% of existing emission credits to organize a community pool for smaller companies. Once the program is set up, it would be fed by the 20% portion withheld by the district.

About 20 companies now have a total of about 1,000 tons of pollution credits on record with the district, officials said.

The companies that would be required to contribute to the pool are those whose annual pollution-causing emissions add up to five tons or more. The banked emissions could then be used by companies that produce less than the five-ton limit.

The new provision is necessary, Baldwin said, because the California Clean Air Act prohibits the county from allowing any net increase in air pollution-causing emissions over a year. That could prevent small companies from moving into the county and existing businesses from expanding, Baldwin said.

“Large sources generally have the financial and technical resources to negotiate emission offsets,” Baldwin said. “But a gas station, dry cleaner or auto body repair shop does not.”

“There is really no other way to do it that we’ve found,” Baldwin said.

The proposed revisions to the regulation will go before the County Board of Supervisors for approval this fall.

Karl Krause, an air pollution district engineer, said he has received surprisingly few complaints so far, despite two public meetings.

“Maybe it’s not as bad as some thought it would be,” Krause said. “We’ve had a New Source Review rule for 10 or 12 years now, and I’m sure nobody was expecting it to get less stringent.”

NEXT STEP

The Air Pollution Control District advisory committee will meet to hear the proposed New Source Review regulation and accept comments from the public at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 27 at the Ventura County Government Center, third-floor multipurpose room.