Cap and Trade Expenditure Plan Provides Over $300 Million in Incentives for Agriculture to Lower Emissions
The 2018-2019 cap and trade expenditure plan passed both the Assembly and Senate. The plan contains $304 million in the form of grants and other incentives for agriculture to reduce both greenhouse gas and mobile source emissions.
Ag Council supports the expenditure plan as it fulfills Governor Jerry Brown’s commitment to agriculture to incentivize stationary and mobile source emissions reductions in the agriculture sector. Ag Council and other agricultural advocates secured the funding commitment in 2017 as part of the negotiations to reauthorize the cap and trade program.
We thank the governor and legislators for this critical funding dedicated to agriculture to reduce emissions, which reinforces support for California’s farmers and food processors who achieve the most ambitious regulatory standards in the nation.
The funding in the cap and trade expenditure plan includes:
1) A total of $132 million (from two separate funding sources) for agriculture to reduce emissions through the purchase of harvesting equipment, heavy-duty trucks, agricultural pump engines, tractors, and other diesel equipment;
2) $99 million for dairy digester research and development and alternative manure management;
3) $64 million for food processors to implement projects to lower greenhouse gas emissions;
4) $5 million for the Healthy Soils program, including no-till and compost application projects; and
5) $4 million for renewable energy projects in the agriculture sector
Among the allocations, is funding for the recently created program for food processors to reduce emissions. This new incentive program, developed in part as a result of Ag Council’s lobbying efforts, is the first of its kind for food processors at the state level and provides our members and others with the opportunity to compete for funds to lower emissions.
The majority of the funds for agriculture in the expenditure plan derive from cap and trade proceeds—paid for by entities in the cap and trade program—as well as from other air quality funding sources within the California Air Resources Board.
With passage in the Senate and Assembly today, the expenditure plan moves to the governor’s desk for his signature. The funds are in addition to the $300 million already provided via the 2017-2018 expenditure plan last year for agricultural emissions reductions.
Please contact Ag Council at ph. (916) 443-4887 with any questions.