SCAG's Southern California Climate and Economic Development Project  

Problems of traffic congestion and air pollution are not new to this region. Residents have experienced the costs of congestion in time and dollars and often in terms of health effects as well. New state legislation, Assembly Bill 32  and Senate Bill 375 sets new standards for California's production of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Senate Bill 375 specifically gives Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), such as the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), the responsibility to work with local jurisdictions to develop a regional strategy for reducing GHG. This legislation has created an impetus for SCAG to think deeply about the best long-term approaches to these challenges. To this end, SCAG is seizing the opportunity to work with its partner agencies, local business leaders, and technical experts from the region to identify a range of options to meet the region's needs for equitable economic development, pollution reduction, housing and transportation planning. Doing so will support economically viable and livable communities.
 
SCAG's Climate and Economic Development Project (CEDP) addresses the desire to select cost-effective and equitable strategies for meeting these needs. A major part of this effort is the Project Stakeholder Committee (PSC), which is comprised of 40-50 citizens representing diverse local and regional perspectives from business; industry; the building/construction, housing and commercial real estate sectors; transportation interests; environmental groups; government; and academia.
 
The PSC will spend 10 months developing and analyzing options in five key topic areas:

1. Land Use development patterns and distribution of population, including business and commercial facilities, employment and housing
2. Transportation Investment, particularly transit investment and other infrastructure that may impact GHG emissions
3. Transportation Planning and Demand Management, planning and programs that reduce demand for low-occupancy auto traffic and improve efficiency of commercial vehicles
4. Transportation System Management and operational policies and practices
5. Multi Sector Issues, including energy, commerce, resource management and multi sector institutional and integrative issues 

Members of the PSC will formulate three Technical Work Groups (TWGs) to analyze GHG reduction strategies for these topic areas. Other experts from the region will augment the PSC members on these TWGs. Concerned citizens are invited to follow and offer comments on the work of the TWGs. See the Technical Work Group link on the left sidebar for a listing of the TWGs, their meeting schedules, and related documents.
 
The Center for Climate Strategies (CCS) will facilitate the PSC and TWG meetings and provide technical assistance in quantifying the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potential of proposed options. CCS is a nonprofit organization that has helped many states with climate action planning. The Center will also provide cost benefit and socioeconomic analysis of options and macroeconomic modeling of PSC recommendations. Because economic sustainability and socioeconomic impacts are a major aspect of this project, SCAG is drawing on the assistance of two groups of economists and technical experts to provide input and review for this process a Technical Advisory Panel and a Technical Advisory Committee. (For more information on these groups see the Technical Advisors link on the left sidebar.)

SCAG s Climate and Economic Development Project is designed to be open to the public and transparent in its process. Members of the public are invited to attend all meetings or listen to teleconferences. Specific time will be allotted for public input during all meetings and teleconferences. This website will provide notice of meetings and a record of the documents developed. Useful information on the state legislation (Assembly Bill 32 and Senate Bill 375) that set this process in motion can be found in the Related Documents and Links section of the website. Information on climate change, what SCAG is already doing, and on the PSC's role can be found in the Background section.

Meeting dates and times of the
Project Stakeholder Committee will be posted here.

The third meeting of the PSC was held
Wednesday, January 12, 2010
9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

For information on this and previous meetings see
the PSC page.