Swearengin, Arambula make pitch for more cap-and-trade dollars - Fresno Bee

With newly minted Democratic Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula by her side and Republican Jim Patterson sitting on the committee, Mayor Ashley Swearengin on Wednesday made her case to state legislators that economically disadvantaged Fresno does not get enough cap-and-trade money from the state.

The cap-and-trade program is part of Assembly Bill 32, the state’s 2006 emissions-reducing law. An estimated $2 billion annually is generated by companies that pay for pollution credits under the state’s greenhouse gas reduction program.

Swearengin and Arambula, who last month was elected to fill the remaining seven months of former Assemblyman Henry Perea’s term, told an Assembly budget committee that Fresno has only received $9 million from that pot of money