I could use your help on something that should be blasted to every resident in our Central Valley. We believe the public should know about a proposed fee the people at the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District are considering.
Central Valley residents pay a current fee of $225-$290 anytime it becomes necessary to change a home’s furnace (put into effect 2015). You pay that regardless of purchasing the least efficient or the most efficient furnace available to you. It doesn’t affect anyone but Central Valley residents, north of Sacramento down to Kern County.
The monies collected are given in rebates back to residents who can afford to buy a new hybrid or electric vehicles or to folks that choose to change a working fireplace to natural gas use.
The new proposal jacks the fee to $900-$950 over the next six months.
So each resident in our valley, who is already paying top dollar in California to meet the most stringent energy saving laws, is now to be subjected to a reverse “Robin Hood “scheme. Let’s take from many who cannot afford to change their heating/cooling systems and give that to a fortunate few.