With the Check Before You Burn season underway, the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District wants to let the public know about its Wood Stove & Fireplace Change Out Incentive Program. Low income residents or landlords of low income rental properties may be eligible to get a voucher for up to $1,500. To find more information about the Wood Stove & Fireplace Change Out Incentive Program please visit the following link http://airquality.org/woodstove/SpecialNotice.shtml ###

Check Before You Burn Starts November 1 in Sacramento County and its Cities The fifth season of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District’s Check Before You Burn program starts November 1 and runs through February 29, 2012. Residential wood burning will be restricted or prohibited on days when fine particle pollution is forecast to be high. The law is in effect in Sacramento County and its cities of Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt, Isleton, Rancho Cordova and Sacramento. Residents are required to Check Before You Burn. The District will restrict or prohibit the use of indoor and outdoor fireplaces and wood stoves, and fire pits and chimineas that burn wood, pell

Daisies, Tomatoes and Parsnips, Oh My! The relationship between what you grow and the air you breathe Researchers at the University of Virginia found that air pollution is destroying flower fragrance, making it harder for bees to find flowers when foraging. This proves that the relationship between the air we breathe and what we grow can be a crucial factor on whether your garden will have the best petunias on the block or whether they fall flat. The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District and the air districts of the region want to provide tips on how you can make the most out of your garden. This can be done while reducing pollutants in the air you breathe and bringing

Living in the city and wondering how you can do your part to Spare The Air and maintain your glamorous self? The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District and the air districts of the Sacramento region have five trendy tips to help you learn how to help improve the air quality while being chic in the Sacramento region. 1. Be a Nerd Doing your part to help the environment and society is not always easy. You are studying for your biology midterm and not quite sure why it has to involve frogs. Then, last week you picked up an extra shift at the coffee shop to pay for that can’t-take-my-eyes-off-every-time-I-walk-past-the-window scarf at the boutique on J Street. On top of work

 How to Care for Your Car and Spare The Air Tips on Taking Better Care of Your Car While Reducing Air Pollution We all know that owning a car is an ongoing responsibility that requires dedication, time, effort and money. Ultimately, the lifespan and value of a car depends on the amount of care it’s given along the way. The everyday care and simple “tune-ups” can be quite easy to brush to the side in the rush of our everyday lives, but a task that we wish we would have stayed on top of by the time we’re forking over the big bucks to pay for parts and labor to fix major car problems. Personal car use is the nation’s biggest contributor to air pollution. For this reason, keeping up with the

The Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District will host Scooter’s Clean Air Pet Fest and 1st Birthday Party this Saturday, May 21, 2011. The festivities will take place from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. alongside the dog park at Howe Avenue Park, located on the corner of Howe Avenue and Cottage Way in Sacramento. This free, pet-friendly event will kick off the 2011 Spare The Air season, which takes place every year from May through the end of October. The Spare The Air program offers different tips and tactics that can be used to help reduce air pollution in the Sacramento region. Scooter and several of his mascot friends will gather to celebrate Scooter’s first birthday and pro

Oil your chains, pump up your tires and get geared up for Sacramento Bike Month. May is bike month in Sacramento, and there are many bike-related activities and events going on in the region whether you’re an advanced bicyclist or a recreational rider. May is a good month for biking, and it’s the perfect time to campaign for bike awareness, according to Sacramento Area Council of Governments co-chair Sonja Atkins. “I think it’s about getting people out there for their health, for air quality, to save money and for safety,” Atkins said. “There’s so many pieces to this puzzle, and it’s such a great mode of transportation that I see is important in many realms.” The campaign, in its sixth

SECAT (Sacramento Emergency Clean Air & Transportation Grant Program) had a banner year in 2010, closing out the application process early due to “overwhelming response” and ending its first decade with over $75 million already allocated to help replace on-road heavy-duty diesel vehicles in the Sacramento area with lower emission vehicles. Created by California Assembly Bill 2511 to help the Sacramento region meet its air quality attainment commitments under the State Implementation Plan (SIP), SECAT is a partnership between Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD) and the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) that provides grant funds to replace on-road h

Mayor Kevin Johnson and representatives from public agencies and small businesses said Thursday that ballot measure Proposition 23 would harm the environment, green businesses and air quality. The November ballot measure would overturn the state’s climate change law, AB 32, until the state reaches an unemployment rate of 5.5 percent or lower for four consecutive quarters. AB 32, which the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger passed in 2006, aims to cut California’s greenhouse gas emissions. Backers of Prop. 23, officially called the “California Jobs Initiative,” argue that AB 32 hurts businesses that must pay the expense of making mandatory changes to comply. The Sacrame

California's air may start to look a little cleaner, thanks to the California Department of Transportation and its project partners. Caltrans's revolutionary "green locomotive" debuted Wednesday morning at the Amtrak Sacramento Valley station. Members of Caltrans and its project partners assembled within the train station at a press release to make statements regarding the new locomotive, considered a major step toward reducing California's carbon footprint. It is one of the 15 F59PHI model locomotives owned by Caltrans and operated by Amtrak that is now installed with a 710ECO Repower upgrade package. The package is said to consist of the latest microprocessor-controlled locomotive eng