Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

The Ed Fund seeks to speed up clean transportation development, end fossil fuel dependence, and center the wellness, experience, and self-determination of historically disadvantaged, working-class, and Californians of color. We expanded from our traditional expertise in legislation to regulatory advocacy in 2020. We recruited former Hill staffer and Barbara Boxer alum Ameen Khan to connect with environmental, environmental justice, and labor organizations to advocate for Advanced Clean Cars 2 (which ensures that by 2035 all new passenger cars, trucks and SUVs sold in California will be zero emissions) and other clean air regulations. The program‚ aim is to have California adopt strong regulations and engage with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to receive a waiver to implement the regulations, which will establish the Ed Fund as a regulatory leader, our state as a global leader on climate action, and open the opportunity to other states to adopt California‚ ambitious standards.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Replaces/avoids GHGs (e.g., projects that replace sources of GHGs, such as the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, transport, or other energy uses), Reduces GHGs (e.g., projects that reduce sources of GHGs, such as through efficiency or other changes in consumption)

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

California‚ fossil fuel-based transportation system has contributed significantly to climate change, created air pollution and health issues that are disproportionately experienced in low-income communities and communities of color, and made drivers bear the brunt of volatile fuel prices. Therefore, shifting to a zero-emission transportation system is critical to mitigate climate change, improve air quality and health almost everywhere, but especially in vulnerable communities that experience high traffic levels, and make car expenses more predictable and affordable. We are fully engaging in the California Air Resource Board‚ (CARB) many public meetings to ensure that the resulting proposed policies and actions are ambitious and prioritize not only statewide emission reduction but also the need to eliminate toxic local air pollution that most impacts environmental justice and BIPOC communities. 



Our work will ensure that we advance clean energy implementation in a way that supports the people that are most impacted by fossil fuel pollution. We are strategically focusing our resources to increase the political capacity for the environmental, climate justice, and environmental justice movements in California‚ Inland Empire and Central Valley. These are the regions in our state where pollution burdens, economic, and racial inequity are most rampant. For example, our planned work to decarbonize the heavy trucking industry will alleviate air pollution in the Inland Empire, which has the busiest trucking corridors and worst air quality in the nation, is home to many people of color, and has experienced rapid growth during the pandemic.

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Mission Statement:

EnviroVoters and our 501c3 Education Fund protect California‚ natural resources and improve the health of our communities by educating individuals and the public on climate and environmental policies, conducting public opinion research, shaping the public narrative, organizing with allies and environmental justice partners, developing policy, educating the public and legislators, and facilitating Green California. The EnviroVoters Ed Fund works in complement of our 501c4 sister organization, the California Environmental Voters, and our nine local leagues and political action committees to build power. The Ed Fund‚ Regulatory Advocacy program is operated across the state of California to pass more stringent clean energy and transportation regulations. Once regulations are passed within California and waived by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), other states across the US will be able to adopt the same regulations. California, then, accelerates the American movement to a fossil-free future, with our work freeing government to drive clean-transportation solutions.