We good, Selena?

Okay.

Okay, good morning.

We will call to order the May 22, 2025 meeting of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality

Management District Board.

Would the clerk please call the roll?

Chair Aquino?

Here.

Director Desmond?

Director Dickinson?

Here.

Director Guerra?

Director Hume?

Director Kennedy?

Vice Chair Maple?

Director Middleton?

Director Pratton?

Here.

Director Robles?

Here.

Director Rodriguez?

Director Sander?

Director Serna?

Director Vang?

We do not have quorum, but we could proceed to our receiving file presentations.

Okay.

Well, if you'd all please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for

which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

Aye.

Selina, would you please read the announcements?

Members of the public are encouraged to observe the meeting in real time at Metro14live.saccounty.gov,

participate in person via Zoom video or teleconference line, and by submitting written comments to

board clerk at airquality.org.

Comments will be delivered to the Board of Directors.

Public comments regarding matters under the jurisdiction of the Board of Directors will

be acknowledged by the chairperson, distributed to the Board of Directors, and included in

the record.

This meeting of the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District is live and

recorded with live captioning, with closed captioning.

It is cable cast on MetroCable 14, the local government affairs channel on Comcast and

Direct TV U-verse cable systems.

Today's meeting replays on Saturday, May 24th, 2025 at 1.30pm on MetroCable, channel 14.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

We're going to skip ahead to item 7.3 if you want to introduce this one, Selina.

Sure.

Item 7.3, Clean Tech Opportunities in Greater Sacramento, and I have Charles Adrian with

the Greater Sacramento Economic Council here to give a presentation.

Thank you, Charles.

I apologize that we don't have a larger audience for you here this morning, but for those of

us who are here, you have our undivided attention.

Thank you for coming.

Well, I'd like to be here, Mayor.

Thank you, honored members of the board.

It's always great to be here.

My name is Charles Adrian, and as a matter of formality, I'm the Executive Vice President

of the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, a wonderful organization, in my opinion, here

in our region that we work very, very closely with Alberto and his team here at the AQMD,

and of course with the jurisdictions represented on this board.

Alberto and his team asked me to come and give a quick update on the work that we're doing

in the Clean Tech sector because it directly impacts and intersects with the work that

you all do here as board members and as staff at the Air Quality Management District.

So if I can, I would just, before I get started, I want to point, put your attention on our new

logo and look and feel if you've seen our presentations, which I'm sure you have before.

We just unveiled this last week and we're quite proud of it.

I know I am preaching to the choir here, but I am contractually obligated to first introduce

the Greater Sacramento Economic Council to anyone who may not be familiar with what we

do.

We are the regional economic development organization for Greater Sacramento.

We cover a region of 2.6 million residents, six counties, and on our board of directors,

all those six counties sit along with 16 cities, all of whom are represented on this board as

well.

So thank you for the support and thank you for the investment and the dedication to economic

development in our region.

We leverage the input from the public sector and the resources from the public sector four

to one with private sector resources.

So we have more than 50 CEOs on our board driving economic change, driving economic prosperity

and dynamism in the market.

We're proud to say that over the last three years, we have been named the number three

economic development organization in the world by the International Economic Development Council

three years in a row.

So we just submitted for our 2025 awards.

We shall see how that goes when we get the results back here in a couple of months.

Now, to the matter at hand, if I can get to the next slide, please.

We're here to really talk about the impact that we have on the cleantech market in the region and the work that we're doing,

but just a little bit about the overall region's performance because that actually influences quite a lot what happens in the cleantech

sector.

So we are collectively six county market, a growing region, a prosperous region, and much more so than we were 10 years ago.

And that makes us a more attractive value proposition for a lot of companies.

And it really speaks to the leadership and dedication that's been employed in economic development over the past decade in the market.

So one of the things that a lot of companies pay attention to is not only where are you in terms of your stock, if you will, but also your flow, right?

Where do you grow?

How are you growing?

And we, for example, are the number two region in the country for technology growth and life science growth, for example.

We're one of the top regions in the West for job growth.

And we grow very fast in educational attainment, which is very important for companies in the cleantech sector,

many of which rely heavily on research and development activities to be successful.

We're also seeing that in our numbers.

More broadly speaking, the Brookings Metro Monitor has its top 10 in growth nationally, top 20 in prosperity,

and top 7 in inclusion nationwide over the past 10 years.

Next slide, please.

Next slide, please.

That's all good.

Gave me a chance to catch my breath.

Oh, last one, please.

Okay, one back.

Yes, best one.

Thank you.

All right, so let's talk cleantech.

And I do want to say we run our pipeline numbers monthly.

What you're looking at here is May 1st numbers.

We just ran them again yesterday.

So they broadly are the same, but I'll speak to a couple of small but important changes that have happened.

As you can see in the pie chart on the right, cleantech and mobility, closely defined, represents almost a third of our pipeline,

somewhere between a quarter and a third of our total pipeline of 108 active projects.

So that holds true, by the way, in the most updated numbers.

33 of our active projects, 108, we still are at 108, are in the cleantech space.

But it also extends into things like advanced manufacturing, for example, semiconductors, and even agri-food tech.

A lot of those have cleantech either overlap or actually cleantech companies, but they're classified in those industries.

So it is completely fair to say that the various cleantech verticals are the most important driver of economic activity and economic inbound, especially in the region.

And very quickly, from a rank order standpoint, the number one within that is mobility, so anything related to zero emission vehicles, whether they're hydrogen or battery.

Then battery technology, particularly battery storage, grid storage, is the second.

Clean energy, so energy production or energy transmission.

Circular economy, just to be clear, we define circular economy really as a sort of an advanced form of recycling, if you will,

making sure that there is use for recycled or reused products somewhere else in the industrial supply chain.

And then finally, we still continue to see hydrogen projects pop up.

They have slowed a little bit, but we do have active projects right now in hydrogen.

That rounds out the top five for us.

Also importantly, you see there, we have 26 percent of our projects are foreign-directed investment.

It's much higher in the cleantech space.

It's actually about 40 percent.

We've got a lot of people who have been able to do that.

And we just went to the Select USA show, the big international trade show that the U.S. government puts on in Washington, D.C.,

and landed another four cleantech projects, all of them with, of course, international companies looking to make investments in the United States.

Clean tech for us is almost 100 percent industrial, by the way, mostly looking at manufacturing, but also some warehousing.

Next slide, please.

So why do companies choose Greater Sacramento?

And I should mention that over the past two years, we have had eight what we call locates.

So eight of the companies that we've helped expand or locate in the market have been cleantech companies.

That represents just about 25 percent of our total deal flow as far as companies that actually land in the market.

Many of them here in Sacramento County, including, of course, Sparks,

but also another one that we can't quite talk openly about yet, but we're working on PR4 that has landed in unincorporated Sacramento County.

But broadly speaking, why do companies choose the market?

I think it's important for you all to have a good sense of.

Next slide, please.

So number one, and this is important, you know, the state of California, of course,

there are pros and cons to doing business in the state of California.

We all know that.

But at the end of the day, the state remains a very attractive value proposition for many, many companies,

particularly those that are technology forward and are really driven by research and development.

And, of course, that almost by definition applies to cleantech because those are companies that are pushing the envelope, right?

So the state remains the number one destination in the world, not just in the U.S. for venture capital investment.

We remain a really attractive destination for even advanced manufacturing projects and semiconductors.

We build a lot of businesses in the state of California, right?

And, of course, the state's policy environment driving zero emission vehicle adoption and driving renewable energy production

and renewable energy demand is really attractive to companies that are doing business in the cleantech verticals.

And that, of course, shows up down here at the local and the regional level as well.

And so if we can go to the next slide, please.

Here in the region, one of the things that really attracts companies is the fact that we remain a fast-growing market

relative to not only the state and our fellow regions across the state, but also relative to the United States.

Over the past 10 years, the greater Sacramento region has grown almost 50% faster than the U.S. as a whole,

roughly just shy of four times as fast as the state of California and more than four times as fast as the Bay Area.

And, of course, that drives interest from business, not just for retailers and restaurants,

but also from companies that are seeing that their labor force is going to be growing here,

so they're not going to have trouble necessarily finding talent.

Next slide, please.

We're seeing the same thing in the employment markets, as I mentioned earlier.

We're second in the West in employment growth in 24-25, again outperforming the United States,

outperforming California, and outperforming virtually every market on the West Coast except for Seattle.

So, again, this shows the nexus between being able to achieve high-quality employment growth

and high-quality residential growth.

Next slide, please.

Yeah.

Thanks, Charles.

Of that growth, you probably don't have the number right offhand, but give me a guesstimate.

How much of that is Metro Airpark alone?

In terms of employment growth?

Mm-hmm.

I mean, I would say it's certainly a driver, but we are seeing it broad-based.

One of the things that I showed earlier was our number in geographic inclusion,

which really shows where in the region growth is dispersed.

We're third in the country there, so that means that there's really no matter where you look in the region,

we're seeing growth.

Give me a number for Metro Airpark.

I mean, it would probably be in the single digits, but that's pretty high for a single industrial park.

Okay.

Fair enough.

Fair enough.

Fair enough.

Fair enough.

Finally, I wanted to highlight our workforce.

Clean tech companies are basically high-tech companies.

They require a high-tech workforce, and Greater Sacramento has one of the highest proportions

of bachelor degree holders that are in the STEM fields.

So we see this a lot from companies that are attracted to the market.

Next slide, please.

And then finally, so we have a high-quality value proposition,

but we also have a reasonable cost value proposition.

So we basically compare well with Austin and Denver, for example,

across a number of different business typologies.

But if you look at markets like LA, Seattle, and San Francisco,

that have similar value propositions on the quality side to us,

we're much, much lower cost.

So you can basically get a better bank for your buck in the Greater Sacramento market,

and we see this quite a lot with a lot of the clean tech businesses

that we're working with in the pipeline.

Next slide, please.

Geographically, this is really important,

and this speaks to Supervisor Cerner's question about Metro Airpark.

We're located at a really advantageous point for the clean tech supply chain and pipeline.

A lot of the early-stage technology development occurs in the Bay Area,

and a lot of the big headquarters are in the Bay Area for this industry.

You see all the logos here.

We also have two national labs.

We don't have Livermore on here,

but Berkeley and Livermore are both churning out really advanced battery technologies, for example.

And then on the other side of I-80, you have Reno, Nevada,

where there's a lot of big-scale production going on,

both on the battery and, of course, the battery side,

the Redwood materials doing recycling, et cetera, et cetera.

We sit right in the middle, both in supply chain terms and in geographic terms.

So one of the things we see a lot here in the market is there's a lot of opportunity

for early-stage commercialization and scale-up.

And so we see this really across the board,

and you can see we have a lot of assets in the region that support that part of the value chain.

Again, through the chair?

Is that good?

Yes.

So one thing I don't see, which I just think is complementary to the and pertinent relative to the slide,

is the fact that we have Watt EV coming in, too,

which is not necessarily a production operation,

but it is going to be, well, it is kind of an industry leader

in terms of electrifying the north-south spine of California along the I-5 corridor

for heavy freight movement that is battery electric.

And Watt EV will be one component stop along that spine

that will permit their particular business model to hopefully succeed

that is really steeped in advancing green and zero-emission transportation technologies,

whether it be, you know, whether they're swapping out their tractors

that are all electric or battery swap.

I'm not clear on exactly how they're going to do it,

but it's going to be an important presence here in Sacramento.

Again, just on the other side of I-5 from Metro Airport.

Absolutely.

And we're also seeing companies like Bayo Tech, for example, on the hydrogen side,

they're generating additional capacity for the market there.

Dr. Ayala has something to add.

What I wanted to offer, Director Cerna,

is it would be relatively straightforward for us to overlay these projects.

Obviously, this agency is a very strong supporter of the Watt EV project.

It's going to be the flagship in California.

It's not the only one.

We can bring that back, working with our friends at GSEG,

so that you have a better idea.

And that's really what we're trying to accomplish with the item today, right?

Make the connection of what is happening in the region broadly

and then land it to very specific projects that this board is trying to support

so we could come back with that piece of information.

And this may be, you know, a couple years away,

but I think once they're up and running, I think it would be good to offer this board

and work with the Watt EV operator, obviously,

get a tour of their facility and see how it's functioning.

And they're going to have a solar element out there, which is fascinating.

So I think it's subject matter that is obviously in the space that we work in here

and obviously that you and your staff work in.

And I think it's important for us as decision makers relative to air quality

to see how that's actually operating and part of the kind of the broader network across the state.

We completely agree, and we will do that.

And in addition to that, as our chair can attest,

we don't need to wait until they're up and running.

We also like to take our board to where the technology is.

We attended the opening of the very first Watt EV in Bakersfield, for example.

Our chair and a few others went to ACT Expo with us and spoke with Watt EV.

So I absolutely agree.

And, again, we'll commit to come back and overlay some of these projects.

We have numerous projects, and I think the point is I want this board to be aware

that we really are becoming this hub, an ecosystem of integration of these economic development projects

that have a very direct link and benefit to air quality

and some of the things that are priorities for this agency.

If I could move to the next slide, because I think what's also really, really important

for us to convey today is that the air quality management district

and your leadership also is essential for economic development.

So the work that we're doing is hopefully contributing to air quality improvements

in the market and the state.

But the collaboration that we have with Dr. Yala and his team is absolutely essential

to driving further activity and further pipelines.

So I'll walk you through three of the key strategies that we're embarking on in this regard

to hopefully help make that nexus.

And, yes, we are committed.

Once we have grand openings and ribbon cuttings, et cetera, et cetera,

we are always happy to arrange for tours, et cetera, of all the companies that we're working with.

As I mentioned, we had eight just in the last two years in the clean tech space

that have located across the marketplace, including Bosch, by the way,

which is the largest one.

And I think that's a really good example of this.

Bosch is not traditionally thought of as a clean tech player.

Oh, wait a minute.

It's a semiconductor company.

Yes, they're going to be producing semiconductors,

but the semiconductors they will be producing is silicon carbide substrate,

which is essential for the operation of high-voltage electric motors,

basically EVs, but also battery storage units, et cetera.

We will be, when that fab opens, 40% of national production capacity for that substrate,

which means we're going to be one of the leaders globally in literally driving electric cars.

And I think that's a good example of how the economic development work

and the work that's going on to advance air quality in the market really go hand in hand.

So if I can go to the next slide, please.

On that note, one of the things that we have formed,

and I want to really give a big shout-out to Hayden Candle,

who's our project manager working on these projects.

She wasn't able to join this morning, but she's really our lead on this.

We have formed a, if you will, sort of an ad hoc team.

Whenever a company comes in that's looking at the market,

we have a group of folks, subject matter experts, financing experts, industry partners, et cetera,

that we can bring to the table to help solve for issues

and really drive companies down the pipeline.

And you will see, of course, the AQMD fully listed there.

We work very, very closely with Dr. Ayala and his team, with the CEC, with, of course, GOBIS,

also with SAC-RT for things that are related to hydrogen or transit, for example.

Banking and financing partners, we have both SMUD and Roseville,

and, of course, the folks operating PG&E territories here.

And then we have CalEPIC, formerly the California Mobility Center,

and, of course, the hydrogen folks at the table, too.

So this is kind of our team of experts that we bring in on every project.

This has been a really, really powerful model for us on a number of deals,

some of which I can't quite talk about just yet,

but they're starting to come to fruition right now,

particularly in the battery storage space.

May I ask a question?

Sure.

Yeah.

Is there a connection in this domain to our educational institutions locally,

UC Davis in particular?

Yeah.

So we bring those in on a regular basis for any project.

So this is obviously just a snapshot that really speaks specifically to clean tech projects.

But, yes, we bring in UC Davis and SAC State, et cetera, as well,

and, of course, local communities when there is a conversation around a particular property

or particular part of the region.

But what has been really effective about this is we have broadened that scope to really go into the subject matter expertise space

and working with regulatory agencies to make sure the companies understand not just the regulatory environment,

but also how they can take advantage of the regulatory environment,

which is really how California drives industry growth in the clean tech verticals.

I was wondering with specific regard to the clean tech sector about that educational connection.

Yeah.

So obviously you have the, you know, institutes of transportation over at UC Davis, for example.

We have brought them in.

In fact, if I can go to the next slide,

because they helped us set up visits in Germany with BMW and Mercedes-Benz, for example.

So they're part of this crew as well.

And I want to point out, again, as I mentioned earlier,

over 30% of our active projects in the clean tech space are international.

Many of them are from Germany and Korea,

which is the two main markets that we have selected for our international engagement.

And we went to Germany early last year with a larger group,

and then followed up in March of this year with two GSEC staff.

And we're gearing up to go back to Germany in the next fiscal year with, again, a larger group.

The trip was focused in great part on zero emission vehicle collaboration

between UC Davis, Sacramento State, and Aachen University, for example.

And we also, of course, focused a lot on Bosch

because their supply chain and their location in the market was quite important to us.

Next slide, please.

The final piece I wanted to highlight is the work that we're currently doing with Newmark,

which is one of the world's largest real estate firms.

But in addition to their work on the office brokerage side and the industrial brokerage side,

they also employ one of the top site selection teams in the world.

So these are consultants that go out and advise companies on where to locate, et cetera.

We actually met them in Korea last year.

We know them well, but we met them in Korea last year,

and that conversation spurred this project where we are really having them take a deep look

of our semiconductor value chain but also the EV battery value chain to say,

all right, where in that value chain does this region shine in particular?

And what are the companies that are moving in that space,

and how do we get in front of them?

And that project is ongoing right now.

Several of the jurisdictions here represented on this board are involved,

and I want to thank you for that.

SMUD is engaged.

Value Vision is engaged.

Roseville Electric is engaged.

And if I can go to the next slide, please.

This is the team that's led by the vice chairman of Newmark, Bob Hess,

who is sort of a good contact of us.

We've worked with him on a number of occasions, a really, really strong team.

Alan Reeves is their global lead for battery technology,

and he's doing that investigation.

Next slide, please.

This is a bit of an eye chart, but I wanted you to see what I mean by this

because you can go out and say, okay, EV battery R&D.

Sure.

What is EV battery R&D?

Well, you actually have to break that down between materials and cells.

You know, cells are the things that make the materials go.

The materials are obviously what they are.

Well, within that, you have the cathode.

You have the anode.

You have the electrolyte.

You have the separator.

All those things are individual R&D components,

and Councilman Dickinson, you mentioned UC Davis.

They have specific research strengths in maybe one or two of those.

Well, that's probably where you should drive your business development

and business recruitment activity.

The same thing goes on the sales side, of course.

Then you look at production.

There are certain areas of production that are tough to do on the West Coast,

in general, in California in particular.

There are others where we can be really, really competitive.

We should probably put our efforts into that, right?

And we are going to have a top-of-the-line, latest and greatest view

into where that supply chain is positioned, likely by the end of July,

and then we're going to launch a major campaign in the fall

to go out and acquire additional companies in the EV and battery space.

So I believe that was my final.

If I can go to the next slide, please.

Other than our faces, this is the team.

Doing the work for you all on behalf of the region.

And then I think I'm going to leave it off to Paul Filly

to talk a little bit about some of the active projects

that the Air Quality Management District is working on.

Charles, you have a couple of questions or comments.

I'm Director Maple, Vice Chair Maple.

All right.

Thank you, Chair.

I really appreciate the presentation.

It's, I guess, some heartening news to see how we stock up

among these other markets that are kind of maybe similar in size

and similar in offerings.

And, you know, I certainly, you know, we hear from businesses in our community

and others that maybe sometimes Sacramento is a challenging place to do business.

And I think that that's true in some cases.

But I think good to know that there's also good work happening

to make it easier for the industries that we want to see come in.

My question is around federal funding.

I know, especially as it relates to EVs and battery manufacturing

and that a lot of that's under threat right now with the current federal administration.

And just kind of want your thoughts on how that might impact Sacramento,

the region's market, and if there are things that we can do here

to maybe help offset that.

Yeah.

And I think there was just a vote overnight, right,

that we're still trying to figure out exactly what happened to the IRA tax credits.

I mean, I think it's obvious when you look at, when we look at our pipeline,

it took a big spike when the IRA was passed.

No question about that.

Now, the IRA was never intended to be a permanent subsidy for the EV

and battery industries or the clean tech industries, right?

It was intended as a spur.

It was intended to accelerate not just production but also R&D advancement.

And it has to a great extent done its job in that regard already.

If you're looking at, there was just an announcement yesterday

that Toyota is going to offer its new RAV4 as a hybrid and plug-in hybrid only.

It will no longer be a traditional gas engine.

That is the number one car in the compact SUV segment.

It represents 1.5% of U.S. auto sales on its own, right?

So when the biggest player in the auto industry makes that move for the U.S. market,

I think you can say that the commercial market is going to respond to that.

And the commercial market has already responded.

So where I do see some short-term potential sluggishness and impact from a federal pullback,

I don't think there's a question about that.

And I do worry about U.S. kind of technology primacy in that regard because that was the other piece of the IRA

and the CHIPS Act was to make sure that a lot of these technologies are developed in the United States.

I would worry about that.

But the medium to long-term trajectory of the global industry is still towards electrification,

and I don't really see that changing.

Now, within the U.S., the California value proposition ironically becomes stronger

because the state continues to invest in this.

The state has a reputation.

If a company is going to invest in the U.S. in the next few years in one of these verticals,

California is going to be relatively more attractive to them.

So I actually see our region as an even stronger play in that regard.

Thank you.

Yep.

Director Serna?

Thank you, Chair.

This is the end of your presentation, correct?

Okay.

So I just wanted to publicly thank Trolls and GSAC.

I've had a long and, I think, productive working relationship hand-in-glove with GSAC personally.

When I say that, I mean through my district.

I've had a long and a half of my district over several years, especially when I had the opportunity

to serve on the California Resources Board.

But I want to thank GSAC especially for focusing on what is not just of economic benefit,

which I think is clearly obvious now for the region and for the jurisdictions that are represented

here on this board.

But for doing that in this particular space, focusing on zero emission vehicle technologies

and propulsion systems and doing the deep dive into even the science of it, understanding

that this, I don't think, would necessarily be as successful as it has been.

And I would suspect it's going to continue to be, I think, without having that partner with

GSAC that is really very, very capable.

And I think has kind of become the expertise hub, if you will, for all of local government,

at least in the region, to work through and with when it comes to not just attracting production

operations or expansion or even headquarters in the space of zero emission vehicles.

But really trying to better understand how we position our jurisdictions as best we can

to promote all the attributes that we currently have and will continue to have that make it

such an attractive place to do business in the space.

And some of that is its own gravity, right?

You get to a point where, again, I'm going to go back to Metro Air Park, where we have and

continue to see so much interest.

And it's not just organic.

I mean, it is a product of very intentional work by GSAC and by Sacramento County.

I had the opportunity to go to South Korea last year with our contingent.

And I think that's already bearing fruit in the space.

But once you get to a point where I think all the benefit is being seen, not just theoretically,

but in practice by some of the early investment that comes, that begins to just kind of continue

to snowball in a good way.

And again, I just can't thank GSAC enough for that very intentional campaign that they embarked

on years ago.

And it's good to see what I've seen.

And I apologize for coming in late.

But it's encouraging.

And please pass along my thanks to Barry and the rest of your team.

Well, Duke, thank you, Supervisor.

It means a lot.

And I should mention, since you bring up Metro Air Park, one thing I did mention earlier was

that we've had eight, quote, unquote, locates in the region over the past two years that

are in the clean tech space.

Three of those have been in Metro Air Park.

So that does show the impact of that.

And your leadership is certainly really important.

And thank you again for joining us in South Korea, where we found out that you can sell

the heck out of the region, too, in a couple of our pitch meetings there.

Sometimes embarrassingly so.

One more.

Director Dickinson?

Metro Air Park brings back memories.

Thanks for the presentation.

I had a couple of things I just wanted to follow up on.

Thanks very much for the presentation.

And it's great to see the encouraging evidence that you presented about our positioning and

activity.

I'm curious about how that fits in the context of the reductions that Apple, Intel, HP, over

the past several years.

How does this all fit together from your and GSEC's point of view?

Well, I think it showcases the importance of being at the forefront of the vanguard of

technology transformation.

Because there is always in any economy going to be a churn of legacy versus cutting edge.

Right?

And what you always want to do is you want to make sure that you position yourself as a

market to be attractive to the cutting edge.

Because that guards against the downside of a potential legacy industry, you know, reduction,

for example.

And I'm not speaking specifically to the companies you mentioned there because they continue to

employ thousands of people here and have generally, they generally continue to do that.

But I will say, for example, one of the important things we're working on in the semiconductor industry

is diversification.

Right?

That's really, really important.

The whole idea behind GSEC is economic diversification.

Originally, to diversify beyond reliance on government employment, particularly state government

employment.

We see that also within sectors.

You can have many, many examples across the country.

You know, one of the original ones was Detroit, right?

Being reliant on basically three companies.

And that didn't go too well for them back for a good number of decades.

They're now finally turning a corner, I think.

But that also came because of economic diversification.

So in the semiconductor industry, one of the things that we want to make sure of is whatever

may happen with Intel, we want to make sure that we have a Solidigm, that we have a Bosch,

that we have a Samsung, which also, you know, which, by the way, many of those are locating

in the region because of what Intel, you know, has done and invested here in the market over

the years.

So I want to acknowledge and recognize them for that.

Cleantech is no different.

Those verticals, the companies that are in those verticals are all cutting edge.

They're going to be the next fast-growing companies and fast-growing industries that are

going to help us guard against over-reliance on legacy.

So whatever reductions in the sector or with the companies I mentioned, you would say have

been more than offset by the activity and the recruitment that you were describing to

us in the report?

I mean, I would.

Because that's not, I don't think that's necessarily a message that is heard widely.

Yeah.

I mean, and part of that is just, you know, what sells, right?

If you look at the job numbers, I think we can say that with confidence.

You know, we're one of the fastest-growing regions in the West and, by definition, then

one of the fastest-growing regions in the country.

And so, yes, I mean, if we had not done the work of economic diversification regionally,

not just as GSEC, but over the last 10 years as a region, I do believe we would have been

in a much, much different position now.

The other question I had, it's really a little bit of a follow-on from what Director Maple

was asking about, was has there been an identifiable fallout that you've seen as a result of the

lack of enthusiasm, shall we say politely, for the CHIPS Act that's been articulated by

the national administration?

Not that we have seen, no.

And I think what's been interesting with regards to the CHIPS Act so far is we have seen rhetoric

and then we've seen reality.

And so far, we have seen no outward impact of anything related to the CHIPS Act.

In fact, you saw Secretary Lutnik tour a TSMC in Phoenix, Arizona.

You've seen announcements related to, so I think what's going to happen with the CHIPS Act,

if I'm just reading the tea leaves, is that it's going to become, it's, there might be some

repositioning, rebranding, slapping a new name on some things, but the underlying investment

continues.

And I think it also refers back to some of the priorities of the administration.

There's a high degree of recognition that semiconductors are fundamental to national security.

They're fundamental to, you know, national energy, wherever the energy is generated from,

right?

And, of course, also to the work that's going on in AI.

And all those things are relying on semiconductors and we need to continue to support them.

Well, I appreciate your comment.

And I mean, and it's, again, encouraging to hear that there's not apparently a connection

between the rhetoric and the action because, you know, the CHIPS Act seems to make so much

sense and stimulated so much activity even almost immediately after it's, after it was signed

into law, to go the other direction seems not only in our national economic interest, it's

not in our national security interest.

And so that's why I was curious about what you had seen.

So I appreciate the comments.

I would just make one final comment in response to your earlier comment, Director Dickinson,

is that one of the things that we've heard in Folsom as Samsung and Qualcomm have established

a presence is that the reason they did that is because of the talent pool because of Intel.

And so even as Intel, you know, unfortunately has had to reduce their numbers, you know, because

of that diversification, we've been able to maintain that talent pool.

That is exactly right.

Intel has been absolutely essential and it's, we're obviously rooting for them, but it's

important to have that diversification.

And yes, you're right.

Folsom is really one of our, one of our ground zeros in the semiconductor industry in that way.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, thank you, Chols.

Do we have another part of this?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very briefly, Madam Chair.

I'm Paul Philly.

I'm the Program Manager of the Transportation and Climate Change Division.

And I was asked to sort of focus in on a few key projects that are happening within our

clean tech ecosystem here, mostly focusing on hydrogen and biomass 2.0 projects.

We, I think ecosystem and circular economy is sort of a key piece of this given that we are

in the valley.

And so we wanted to highlight Ecomotive Hydrogen, which is going to be down on Twin Cities Road

off of I-5.

And they'll be taking biomass and converting it into hydrogen along that corridor, along

with Carbon Zero, which is taking biochar from various agricultural waste products and

then sequestering that as soil amendments back into our agricultural sectors.

And of course, SAC Sewer's biogas project, which is taking other forms of waste and converting

it into useful energy for the region.

Beyond that, we also have new dispensing facilities that are coming in, looking to support heavy

duty on roads.

So SAC-RT is getting ready to convert their fleet into hydrogen.

And so they've just finished up an RFI to get hydrogen for their facilities up at McClellan.

And then we also have Guardian Yards at Metro Air Park, which is also looking to support that

area as well.

And we also have the flagship project for us, the bigger the engine, the more pollution,

the switchers over at Sierra Northern Railroad in West Sacramento, which was highlighted last

meeting, is another project that's very innovative, first of a kind.

And we are doing our best to support these projects that will get us to the next practice

and be on the cutting edge and support the great work that GSEC is doing so that we can

have cleaner air and clean tech jobs.

So next slide, please.

All right.

And then we can ask trolls more questions.

Thank you, Paul.

Anything else for trolls?

Okay.

Well, thank you very much for coming out.

You bet.

Yeah, absolutely.

I appreciate the opportunity.

All right.

Well, it's obvious we are not going to make quorum.

So we will move on to the air pollution control officer's report.

Thank you, Chair.

And as we pull up the slides, maybe just to manage the meeting.

So we do have three items that we need board action on.

What we are going to do is I'm going to huddle with the team and we'll come back to the board.

Your clerk is going to send a message.

We may need to call a special meeting in June.

We'll see if we have options to do it online so you don't have to drive in.

But, again, we'll follow up and you'll be hearing an update from your clerk in terms of how to handle.

Some of the items do have some time sensitivity to them.

So stay tuned.

Okay.

Thank you.

But, again, very complimentary.

And I also want to express my thanks to GSEC and Barry and the whole team.

Completely agree with Director Serna.

I mean, it's been a great catalyst and a glue for the region and all of us that connect with some of these cleaning projects.

Next slide.

Next slide, please.

So what I want to do is just sprinkle a few additional points of information that are happening very directly involving us as an agency,

but also make the connection to this clean tech, clean mobility space.

Staying on the topic of hydrogen.

Some of us joined Senator Caballero, who you may recall is author of our SB88 bill that we are co-sponsoring.

We went down to Anaheim and had a whole summit specifically focusing on the infrastructure that we need.

If we ever envision deploying fuel cell technology, and, again, fuel cells could also be manufactured in Sacramento.

Right?

I mean, a lot of the material that you put in a battery goes into a fuel cell as well.

It's just like a battery.

So great potential.

We're going to continue to be engaged, and we certainly appreciate the leadership from some of our state representatives in the space.

Next slide, please.

Next slide, please.

Next slide, please.

Next slide, please.

Next slide, please.

Next slide, please.

Next slide, please.

And, again, Sacramento is becoming the place to have these conversations about the clean energy space.

And in early June, we have become the place for what I call a premier event on all things hydrogen.

This is meant to be a policy leadership discussion.

That's the reason we have it here in Sacramento.

We do attract folks from the state capital.

That is the target audience.

And, thankfully, we have a prime seat at the table because Sacramento, with all the activity that you've heard, is becoming known as this hub of activity with respect to some of these clean technologies.

And we're going to continue to do that.

And, I mean, just to give you a flavor of how things are evolving in a positive but very rapidly way, Mr. Philly discussed for you seven projects.

I'm going to be speaking, giving the keynote here, and I've already added three more projects, right?

So, I mean, this is the kind of thing that is happening here in Sacramento.

And we're getting noticed.

And, you know, we care about our quality.

We need to work with GSEC and all of you because you guys are the ones that can tell us how do these projects amplify what you want to do in terms of economic development, in terms of improving our community, in terms of actually putting our region.

We don't want to be number three and number two.

We want to be number one.

And we think that the projects that we are implementing for clean air have a component that can help us in that direction.

Next slide, please.

Next slide, please.

Director Dickinson mentioned the educational component to what we do.

We've had discussions before you in terms of we are very proud of the role that we play in educating our next generation of leaders.

And one of the really amazing things that Mr. Lemos has led for us that I'm very much looking forward to it,

you've heard about the project that is turning a low rider with a gas engine into an EV low rider.

And the great...

Not just a low rider, a 64 Impala.

It's still a low rider and will continue to low ride, but it's just going to be zero emissions, right?

This is such a uniquely defining project to our region, right?

It's like, who's doing this?

Well, thanks to talented staff like Mr. Lemos and his team, we're making this happen, working with Sava.

The Smithsonian is going to give us a stage to display the EV.

And we are going to go to D.C.

We are working with Sava.

We are going to put the EV on a flatbed and showcase it, right?

This is the kind of thing that Sacramento can actually do.

And again, it's not old engineers like me doing it.

It's high school kids.

They're actually the ones making the conversion.

I mean, let that sink in, right?

This is the future.

And if they're already gaining the training in high school, imagine what they're going to be able to do when they get to be our age.

Professionals after years of experience, right?

So anyway, stay tuned.

Next time we meet, we'll bring back some pictures, maybe some videos and share with you.

But very much looking forward to this.

Next slide.

Just quickly, Chair, if I may, before we move on from the slide.

I'd just like to, one, say this is very exciting.

Of course, I never mentioned this before.

I'd love to see this on a national stage now.

But I just want to mention that this photograph looks like it could also be an album cover.

So something else to consider.

Thanks.

And, you know, before we go, so this is a battery electric lowrider, right?

I've already challenged our SAVA leadership to say the next project needs to be a fuel cell electric lowrider.

Why not?

Next slide.

And then just to get a little bit more serious here in terms of, again, our legislative agenda this year is really focused on SV88.

We made it through the Senate process.

The bill is in suspense.

We understand that the author is going to call for a vote on the floor tomorrow.

And she's the chair of the Appropriations Committee.

So we're very encouraged that she's going to get a support vote and then move it on to the other side.

We've had great discussions with our friends at the Air Resources Board and some of the other state agencies.

So this is looking very positive.

And, again, this is huge because it's one key enabling piece that we need if we're ever going to make this connection about taking ag biomass that right now we're currently burning and managing to burn very successfully.

But now we can turn it into energy, as you heard in some of the other projects.

Next slide.

Next slide.

And, actually, this is a good way to end it because I'm going to jump the gun a little here.

But so many, many times people ask, is everything that we are doing actually working?

Is it making progress?

And we hope to, in a couple of months, actually bring evidence to that.

We have done everything on our side and submitted to EPA all the information.

And EPA has reacted to us in a positive way.

So it's just a matter of the administrative process.

But the Sacramento region, not just Sacramento County, but the five air districts in the Sacramento Federal Non-Attainment are going to be determined in attainment of the 2008 Ozone Standard.

It's a huge accomplishment, not only for us as air agencies, but for the region.

And we're working with EPA.

We hope to have the regional administrator out.

We're thinking that Folsom might be the place to have this celebration.

But, again, stay tuned.

You're definitely going to hear more about this.

But I did want to share with you just I cannot emphasize too much what a momentous occasion this is.

Because as air quality professionals, this is a once in a lifetime.

You don't work and get designated non-attainment and then go through the entire decade and a half process and then come out at the other end and say, yes, you've attained.

All that work is for this.

So we certainly don't want to miss the opportunity to celebrate.

We'll come back to you with more details.

But I did want to share because, again, we've already heard from EPA that, you know, our documents are complete.

All the data is complete.

It's just a matter of getting the EPA administrator to give us a final signature.

So, yeah, just wanted to share that.

Next slide, Selena.

And that concludes the APCR report.

Any other questions or comments for Dr. Ayala?

I know that there will be some more opportunity at the press event.

But I really do think a round of applause is in order for that.

So I'm going to start that.

Great work to you and the entire team and the, you know, over a decade work, obviously, before my time here.

So excited to learn more and to celebrate.

Well, and, again, in the spirit of partnership, it's five air districts working together, right?

I mean, we were designated as a non-attainment area.

And, I mean, we couldn't, it's an issue of, I say, we sink or swim together.

And it's nice to see that in this case we're all going to celebrate together.

Good.

Director Serna.

Great.

Thank you, Chair.

I know he's not here because he's probably at a CARB meeting.

But I assume that our representative to CARB will be kind of front and center relative to that particular celebration of achievement as well.

I think it's appropriate that we certainly have Council Member Guerra and our CARB representative involved.

Absolutely.

A question about the optimistic, it sounded very optimistic to me, expectation that the current EPA leadership is on board to sign off on what needs to be signed off to officially acknowledge that we'll be in attainment.

I just need to hear that there's no prospect of hyper-politicizing the fact that it's attainment, A, in California, and, B, in the capital region of the bluest of the blue states.

So what's your, if nothing else, what's your gut to tell you about that?

What we're hearing, and again, we're talking directly to senior level executive staff at Region 9.

Again, this is fairly, this is a fairly esoteric process.

You do certain things, and if you do that, then you get designated.

I get it.

There have been other esoteric processes that have unfortunately got entangled in kind of the politics of the current administration.

That's why I asked the question.

All indications we have at this point, and admittedly, one of the things that is on our action item is to actually reach out to the regional administrator, Mr. Josh Cook.

But all indications we have from EPA is that the action is going to be taken.

And frankly, we think that this also shows the partnership.

We need EPA to work with this, with us, right?

And EPA needs us to work on these attainment demonstrations.

So I appreciate and certainly acknowledge the controversies that have arisen in other areas.

I think in this particular case, it's a win-win because EPA is still prioritizing clean air,

and they do want to continue to fulfill the responsibilities under the Clean Air Act.

And getting to attainment is one of the most fundamental things.

And again, the work is done.

Great.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

That takes us to board ideas, comments, and AB 1234 reports.

Anybody have anything?

I would just say quickly, thank you to Dr. Isle and his staff.

Director Robles, Kennedy, and I did join staff down in Anaheim at the ACT Expo.

And one of the things that's most interesting to me is just how fast this industry is evolving.

In one of your slides in your report, you had a truck that said Nikola on it.

And I believe that company is either out of business or been absorbed by somebody else.

So things are moving very rapidly.

So, Selena, do we have any requests for public comment?

I don't think so.

I don't think so.

I think it's time, Chair.

Okay.

Then we will wait to hear further instruction from you guys.

And we will adjourn at 10.03.

Thank you all for coming.