California Energy and Air Quality Conference

Purpose and Background

The California Energy Commission, California Air Resources Board, South Coast Air Quality Management District, and Bay Area Air Quality Management District co-sponsored this conference held at the South Coast District's headquarters in Diamond Bar, California.

Despite groundbreaking efforts to reduce air pollution over the last three decades, California still has some of the worst air quality in the nation. At the same time, California is also experiencing continual increases in energy demand. By providing improved research, tools, and innovative techniques, the California Energy Commission's Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program's Environmental Area (PIER-EA) is working to improve air quality while enabling reliable, affordable and efficient energy. This two-day conference will help to bring public awareness to the current issues and activities underway in the areas of improving air quality and its relation to energy production and use, and spur innovative solutions towards a clean and productive future.

Conference topics included:

• Distributed Generation
• Building Characteristics and Indoor Environmental Quality
• Innovative Approaches to Electricity and Air Quality Planning
• Future Research Directions for Informed Policy Making
• Air Quality and Natural Gas
• Alternative Transportation Strategies - Air Quality and Climate Change

The conference was geared towards mid-level managers of energy and air quality regulatory agencies, including researchers, and industry such as power producers and equipment manufacturers.