I can hardly believe it, but my last day at ClimatePlan has finally arrived.  CRAZY, right?!

August workshops are building on the huge victory advocates scored in June, when the Governor and Legislature reached a landmark budget agreement for the investment of billions of dollars in cap and trade revenue for this year, as well as a framework for future years. This created the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) Program. The program enables the Strategic Growth Council to use $130 million from 2014-15 cap and trade proceeds to support affordable housing, land-use, and transportation efforts that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Advocates in two San Joaquin Valley counties are celebrating the adoption of SCSes that reduce the amount of money pumped into road widenings and begin to focus investment in communities that need it the most.

The San Joaquin Valley’s first Sustainable Communities Strategies (SCSes) under SB 375 are heading into the home stretch, and while some Valley counties have made great strides, there is plenty of room for improvement. Last month, 24 organizations asked the Air Resources Board (ARB) to ensure that Valley counties meet the targets via ambitious land use and transportation policy improvements.

Every two years, the California Transportation Commission (CTC) decides which regional transportation projects will receive priority state funding over the next five years in the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). Despite the ground-breaking report from State Smart Transportation Initiative (SSTI) which pushed Caltrans and the CTC to align investments with the state’s environmental goals, the 2014 STIP invested 81 percent of state funds in road and highway projects and only 17 percent in transit! Right now, California leads the nation in its charge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create sustainable communities. Our state transportation dollars need to implement this vision!