Jack Kitowski has recently joined as the newest MSRC member. As the Mobile Source Control Division Chief for the California Air Resources Board (CARB), Kitowski is excited to bring the state’s ambitious clean transportation objectives and strategies to the MSRC while learning more about the local needs and opportunities to help clean up Southern California’s air.
Kitowski is particularly enthusiastic to help guide future Clean Transportation Funding by the MSRC because of the ability to look at air quality challenges and opportunities holistically. Kitowski noted that because the MSRC can fund everything from research to demonstration projects and provides dollars for initial commercial or municipal projects with a goal of creating wider commercialization and adoption, the MSRC along with the South Coast Air Quality Management District are in many ways doing a better job than most air quality funders.
Mr. Kitowski is quite familiar with the SoCal region having grown up in the San Fernando area where he experienced some pretty bad air as a child. He also was a chemical engineering student at UCLA and wound up immediately applying his degree at CARB where he initially worked in the very mobile sources division that he now runs. Kitowski noted that his numerous jobs at CARB have focused on technical analysis and combined his interest in technology with his interest in creating regulations that could advance the adoption of clean technologies. In addition to specifically focusing on mobile sources, Kitowski has worked in the fuels arena, including the low carbon fuel standard (LCFS) and oil and gas production as well as on cap and trade.
Kitowski acknowledged that achieving air quality improvements and CO2 reductions is harder now than it has ever been, but also pointed out that it is an incredibly exciting time for the sector because of the significant technology advancements that we’re already beginning to see.
In his role as Mobile Source Control Division Chief at CARB, Kitowski currently oversees a staff of 150 employees. He is responsible for most of the incentive programs that work through the Air Resources Board including: The Carl Moyer Fund, Air Quality Improvement Program (AQIP), Low Carbon Transportation and California Climate Investments. He is also responsible for the implementation of existing heavy duty truck, bus and off-road regulations, as well as the development of new regulations including the Advanced Clean Transit Rule.
Kitowski is particularly interested in linking up CARB’s initiatives to maximize the synergies between CARB and the MSRC so that they can be complementary and not competitive. He noted that there’s a significant opportunity to link new technology that CARB primarily is funding with getting technology adoption through MSRC funding. He is also looking forward to learning more about alternative transportation projects including transit funding initiatives to foster trip reduction and active transportation initiatives that CARB doesn’t typically fund.
“Thirty-Five years ago, you knew with every breath in the summer that the air quality was bad, but you didn’t hear much about it except for the stage 2 warnings,” Kitowski recalled. “Today, although you don’t get the visceral reaction for many people, we do a much better job of informing people about the dangers of bad air. Intellectually people know it better. And sadly today there are still millions of people who have serious problems. I look forward to helping the MSRC do more to accelerate needed improvements that are now increasingly technologically feasible.”
The MSRC is proud to welcome its newest member who brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm for the clean air challenges facing the SoCal region.
