The MSRC’s newest member Erik White is hardly new to the issues of clean transportation. As Division Chief for the Mobile Source Control Division at the California Air Resources Board, Erik and his staff of 160 transportation experts are responsible for developing statewide programs and strategies to reduce the emission of smog-forming pollutants and toxics by mobile sources.
Erik’s passion for working to improve air quality came from a very early age. Growing up in Southern California, Erik remembers that on many smoggy days, recess had to be taken indoors and sports activities were often cancelled altogether. Having felt the impacts of poor air quality firsthand, his professional career has been focused on ensuring that children and families don’t have to be burdened by the negative health impacts of bad air.
Erik is proud of having played a role to help achieve air quality improvements throughout the state and especially in Southern California. He is amazed that one can often now see the mountains that encircle Southern California when he only remembers seeing the smoggy haze that made them invisible when he was a child.
While there has been tremendous progress, Erik also acknowledges that there’s much work remaining to be done and he’s particularly concerned about localized air impacts that are severe and disproportionately impact minority and low-income communities. Erik also is concerned about the negative air quality impacts of climate change that include sustained droughts and hotter summers. Fortunately, the policies to continue to make improvements on air quality and to deal with climate change are all similar.
Given the state’s growing cap and trade investments in clean transportation, Erik is especially looking forward to collaborating with the local MSRC members to better understand the local needs and opportunities for leveraging investments and to share the state’s perspective on clean transportation programs. Erik is especially excited to get connected to a broader group of local government stakeholders and acknowledges that sometimes it’s easy to get removed from the local and regional needs. He looks forward to the two-way process of sharing ideas and being able to take local needs and opportunities back to his staff for recommendations of state projects that could further bolster clean transportation opportunities.
Earlier in Erik’s career, he had the opportunity to work on an MSRC off-road equipment demonstration project that looked at the viability of retrofits. The project was very successful and was Erik’s first opportunity to see firsthand how the MSRC can advance innovative clean transportation solutions.
As a new member of the MSRC, Erik now has been especially impressed by the diverse portfolio of clean transportation investments including many innovative trip reduction strategies such as the event transportation buses to Dodgers games that not only reduce emissions but also alleviate the hassle and cost of driving and parking at games.
Erik’s passion and enthusiasm for cleaning California’s air is palpable and the MSRC looks forward to his expertise and collaboration in the years to come.