Report 2020-114 Recommendation 13 Responses

Report 2020-114: California Air Resources Board: Improved Program Measurement Would Help California Work More Strategically to Meet Its Climate Change Goals (Release Date: February 2021)

Recommendation #13 To: Air Resources Board, State

To ensure that the State has reliable information about the extent to which cap-and-trade-funded programs create and support jobs, by August 2021 CARB should begin collecting data on the jobs produced by each of its incentive programs. Where needed, CARB should pursue amendments to its agreements with its program administrators to make reporting this information mandatory. CARB should include an analysis of these jobs data in its annual reports to the Legislature beginning in 2022.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2023

With the publication of the 2022 Annual Report to the Legislature California Climate Investments Report in April 2023, CARB has now publicly reported jobs data for all of its California Climate Investments funded incentive programs. CARB continues to implement changes in response to this recommendation. As noted in previous updates, CARB has already included jobs reporting requirements in the grant agreements for all projects solicited since August 2017 consistent with the requirements in the Funding Guidelines for Agencies Administering California Climate Investments. CARB has also already entered all jobs data provided by grantees into the California Climate Investments Reporting and Tracking System. In addition, CARB already publicly reports the cumulative modeled jobs supported by California Climate Investments for all Low Carbon Transportation investments since fiscal year 2014-15 in its annual Funding Plan for Clean Transportation Incentives and updates these estimates annually. Accordingly, this recommendation is now fully implemented.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

CARB provided evidence that, with its latest CCI report, it has included jobs estimates for all relevant programs.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022

CARB continues to implement changes in response to this recommendation. CARB has included jobs reporting requirements in the grant agreements for all projects solicited since August 2017 consistent with the requirements in the Funding Guidelines for Agencies Administering California Climate Investments. CARB has already entered the jobs data provided by grantees into the California Climate Investments Reporting and Tracking System (CCIRTS). CARB reported these jobs data in the Annual Report to the Legislature on California Climate Investments (Annual Report) for all projects launched over a year ago. For more recent projects that did not have sufficient data to include in the 2021 Annual Report, CARB will include all reported jobs data in the 2022 Annual Report to be published in March 2023. In addition, CARB already publicly reports the cumulative modeled jobs supported by California Climate Investments for all Low Carbon Transportation investments since fiscal year 2014 15 in its annual Funding Plan for Clean Transportation Incentives. CARB updates these modeled jobs supported estimates annually.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented

As we described in our previous assessment of this recommendation, and as CARB confirms here, it has yet to provide comprehensive reporting to the Legislature about the jobs benefits of all relevant programs. Therefore, this recommendation remains partially implemented.

1-Year Agency Response

For the 36 project grant solicitations released since August 2017, 21 already include jobs reporting requirements, 13 are in the process of being amended to include these requirements, and just 2 projects will not include them (one of which is already closed, and the other closes soon). CARB staff is in now in the process of coordinating the collection and reporting of these data and will commence reporting jobs data from these projects by utilizing the California Climate Investments Reporting and Tracking System (CCIRTS), as it has already been doing for the FARMER and Community Air Protection Programs. At the start of 2022, CARB released a memo reminding project grantees of the need to report jobs data for this purpose. CARB plans to publish the Low Carbon Transportation project data as part of the 2022 update of the Annual Report to the Legislature on California Climate Investments.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

CARB's response acknowledges that some of its grant agreements are in the process of being updated to include the job reporting requirements, that its efforts to collect this data are ongoing, and that it has yet to provide comprehensive reporting to the Legislature about the jobs benefits of all relevant programs. Therefore, this recommendation remains partially implemented.

6-Month Agency Response

CARB has already identified where jobs data has not yet been reported for its programs, has amended ongoing grant agreements to incorporate this task where feasible, and is in now in the process of coordinating the collection and reporting of these data. CARB staff will commence reporting jobs data from these projects by utilizing the California Climate Investments Reporting and Tracking System (CCIRTS), as it has already been doing for the FARMER and Community Air Protection Programs. CARB is still evaluating the appropriate mechanism for reporting this information annually.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

CARB provided a list of its grant agreements, which indicates which agreements it has already amended in response to our recommendation. The list also indicates CARB's intent to amend every other such agreement that does not currently contain a requirement for reporting jobs information.

60-Day Agency Response

We have provided refresher training to all project leads on jobs reporting requirements. CARB is also pursuing amendments, where needed, to ensure that program administrators are reporting the necessary jobs information. CARB will also strive to update historical data related to jobs reporting back to August 2017. CARB currently reports on these jobs benefits for the FARMER program and Community Air Protection Program the California Climate Investment Reporting and Tracking System (CCIRTS). CARB is evaluating the appropriate mechanism for reporting this information annually.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

Because State law directs CARB, where feasible, to use cap-and-trade funds in a way that fosters job creation in California, our recommendation is that CARB provide jobs data for its programs in its annual report to the legislature about the impacts of the State's cap-and-trade spending. CARB's own funding guidelines for statewide cap-and-trade programs, which support this annual reporting, require reporting on programs' impacts on jobs. Therefore, if CARB decides to report on job information in a different context, it should ensure that report is comprehensive of all its cap-and-trade funded programs and that it provides the report to the Legislature not less than annually.

All Recommendations in 2020-114

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.