CAP Incentive Outreach

At the beginning of 2020, the Sac Metro Air District continued with the same outreach strategy as in 2019 and attending community events. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all outreach efforts were placed on hold starting in February 2020 as events started to be canceled.

The District then transitioned to virtual outreach through Facebook and Twitter to ask residents, "Let us know what you think?" We asked our residents what air pollution problems they see in their neighborhood. We have listed the top 3 answers for each question below.

Note: We are aware that virtual outreach may unknowingly exclude certain residents in our community. Our outreach is on-going, and we will continue to improve our efforts to reach all members of our communities.

Which do you think causes the most air pollution in your community throughout the year?

1.       Wildfires

2.       Cars

3.       Lawn and Garden

The Sac Metro Air District Currently has money to replace polluting cars, trucks, and equipment with those that are less polluting. What should be replaced first?

1.       Cars

2.       Trucks

3.       Lawn and Garden

What are other ways to reduce air pollution or exposure to air pollution in your community?

1.       Plant more trees

2.       Replace equipment at small industrial and manufacturing facilities

3.       Install better air filters in schools

We asked for other ideas our residents had to reduce air pollution emissions and exposure in our communities. Click here for the complete list of comments and suggestions.  

Below we have listed a summary of the most popular suggestions. They are not listed in any particular order.

Building and Construction improvements, such as

• Limit or Stop building and use what we have

• Prohibit installation of gas and appliances in new buildings

• Build communities that don't require car dependence

Community improvements, such as,

• Address multiple needs first in underserved communities

• Prohibit fires in fireplaces, outdoor fire pits, and charcoal barbeques

• Provide necessary items for families to filter the air pollution in homes, such as air filters or air purifiers

Education and public outreach improvements, such as

• More public education on the status of the current air quality and effects of continued mass polluters

• Increase communication to the public about bad air days and individual carbon footprint impacts

• Stress & Encourage Local Business Shopping & Eating.  Encourage Biking & Provide Safety & Other Incentives. 

• Campaign to the youth with the youth

Lawn and Garden improvements, such as

• Encourage electric Lawn and Garden equipment or ban gas-powered lawn and garden equipment. 

• Provide active programs making new landscaping available at no cost to all businesses and residences in the greater Sacramento area: provide xeriscapes, pollinator, and low water-intensive plants and landscaping

• Plant more trees at no cost. 

Policy changes and improvements, such as

• Be stricter with policy and improve enforcement. Changes need to be made now.

• Support climate change initiatives.

• More regulation on air-polluting businesses and apply fines for gross polluters.

• Provide incentives for discouraging private vehicle use and encouraging public transit, bike, and small electric transport modes within neighborhoods or communities.

• Quit permitting drive-thru windows at businesses

• Ban Smoking

Public Transit improvements, such as

• Safer, more accessible, and better mass transit that is low emission

• Offer incentives to use transit over cars.

•  Support public transit & passenger rail to replace their vehicles with the most current emissions controls and low/zero-emission "fuel" sources.

Roadway and Traffic improvements, such as

• Congestion pricing for cars entering the city

• Better infrastructure for walking and biking, including sidewalks, bike lanes, and shade.

Wildfires Prevention improvements, such as,

• Campaign to arrest and give more considerable consequence to those starting wildfires

• More wildfire prevention strategies.

• Working with our federal and state forestry to maintain healthy forests

During 2019, the Sac Metro Air District went out to various community events and asked residents, “In your opinion, what projects would benefit the air quality in your neighborhood?” 

The bucket voting activity focused on mobile sources of air pollution as selections and included an option for people to write additional comments for their thoughts on air pollution. 

In addition to attending community events, the District continued its outreach to community leaders, neighborhood associations, and non-profit organizations.

Bucket Description

Less Polluting Farm Equipment:  Have all equipment related to agricultural production or farming switch to a less polluting option.

Less Polluting Medium Heavy Duty Trucks: Switch to trucks that run on cleaner fuels instead of diesel. Familiar trucks of this size would be delivery trucks or utility trucks.

Zero/Low Emission Transit Buses: Switch transit buses to run on cleaner fuels instead of diesel.  These are buses that run on fixed routes or in a specific area for public use, such as Greyhound or Sac RT buses.

Zero/Low Emission Freight or Heavy Duty Trucks: Switch to heavy-duty trucks that run on cleaner fuels instead of diesel. Common trucks of this size are the big rigs transporting goods on our highways or the garbage trucks you see once a week.

Lack of Sustainable Fueling Infrastructure: Not having access to fuel types beyond gasoline, such as electric car charging stations. This limits the ability to bring zero-emission cars to the neighborhood and help clean up passenger cars.

Electric Lawn and Garden Equipment: Switch all gas-powered equipment used to maintain our lawns and green spaces to electric. 

Zero/Low Emission School Bus: Clean up the yellow school bus that transports kids to and from public school from diesel to a cleaner fuel. 

Low Emission Locomotives: Switch our locomotives to run on the lowest polluting engine available. These are the trains that move goods and people in and out of our communities.

Other: Any other identified concerns that were not covered above.

Comments Submitted as OTHER:

• Request for fewer electrical things
• More street cleaning
• Less cigarette smoke pollution
• Bathrooms out at parks
• School buses do not have AC
• Stop using electric cars
• ZEV fueling for freight trucks specifically
• Put zero-emission fueling stations in parks and parking lots
• Transit buses need to be safer and cleaner
• Hydrogen Core Fuel Stations
• I will love to see electric trucks on the roads instead of diesel trucks
• More swings at parks
• Build more parks
• Want cleaner air and no smoke
• I would like to see transit buses cleaned up
• More EV vehicles on the road
• More education on air health
• Clean up trash pick up trucks
• Get rid of leaf blowers
• People throwing their trash on the floor
• People should be more consistent, and they should walk or be on a bicycle
• We need more school buses
• More security and activities for youth and the community
• Better clean transportation for school buses
• I would love to see less gas stations, as a native American, the impact it has had on our land is heartbreaking
• More affordable EV options
• Too many trucks on the freeway
• Diesel Fuel stinks
• Lower Rent
• Hearing and breathing affected by exhaust
• More solar
• More zero-emission fueling stations
• More buses
• End controlled burns
• Cleaner cars
• Better water quality
• More natural gas school buses
• Add motorcycles to the options
• Too many delivery and diesel trucks
• Wood burning pollutes my air
• Garbage in the streets
• Cleaner construction equipment
• Smoke from fires
• Need better, more efficient ways to travel
• Buses and cars cause a lot of bad air quality
• Need to clean up the homeless issue   

During 2018 the Sac Metro Air District kicked events off with a stakeholder and community leader workshop in June. Outreach was focused on non-profit organizations, neighborhood associations, and community leaders.

Input on program and project types for CAP incentives was gathered from a paper questionnaire passed out at meetings and was available online. Our second version was also available in Spanish.

There were two questions on our 2018 Community Air Protection program that applied to incentives. From the results, we found that the top 3 choices for project types to help clean up air pollution from mobile sources in our communities were cars, trucks, and buses. 

Question 1: Rank the technologies we should pursue based on your community needs, with 1 being the highest preference and 6 being the lowest.

Technology Types: Cars, Buses, Trucks, Farm Equipment, Harbor Craft, Locomotives

Question 2: Rank the technologies we should pursue based on your individual preferences, with 1 being the highest and 6 being the lowest.