Vehicular air pollution: nonemergency medical transport.

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 designates the State Air Resources Board as the state agency charged with monitoring and regulating sources of emissions of greenhouse gases. The act authorizes the state board to include the use of market-based compliance mechanisms. Existing law requires all moneys, except for fines and penalties, collected by the state board as a part of the market-based compliance mechanism to be deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This bill would require the state board to develop and implement a program to provide grants to a rural county with a total population of less than 250,000 or a public transit operator located in such a rural county for the purchase, operation, and maintenance of near-zero-emission or zero-emission vehicles to provide seniors and disabled populations located in that rural county with nonemergency medical transportation services. The bill would authorize the state board to expend moneys appropriated by the Legislature from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for the implementation of the program.