East Oakland Community Emissions Reduction Plan

The Air District is continuing existing efforts to reduce air pollution and exposures in impacted communities through the state’s Community Air Protection Program, also known as Assembly Bill (AB) 617. This effort focuses on community-based emissions reductions in neighborhoods most disproportionately impacted by air pollution.

In February 2022, the California Air Resources Board voted in support of the Air District's partnering with the East Oakland community to conduct a Community Emissions Reduction Plan, or CERP, process.

Community Voices Shaping the CERP

The Air District began the work of developing the East Oakland CERP by selecting Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), an environmental justice organization, as the co-lead for the project due to the organization’s strong community ties and extensive experience building community capacity in air quality planning in East Oakland.

The “Co-Leads” (Air District and CBE) then selected the East Oakland Community Steering Committee (CSC) members.

The community-based steering committee is responsible for developing a CERP, which will serve as a blueprint for improving air quality in East Oakland.

The CSC is a diverse group of individuals who live, work, or go to school in the East Oakland community. CSC members represent a wide range of sectors, including faith-based organizations, youth, community-based organizations, local businesses, industry, government, residents, and seniors. Upon the selection of the CSC in 2022, the Co-Leads and the CSC began the process of developing a shared understanding of local air quality issues.

Plan Adoption Milestones

• August 2025 | CSC Draft Review. The East Oakland CSC reviewed a preliminary draft of the CERP. During this stage, CSC members provided comments, recommendations, and community-informed feedback to strengthen the plan before it was released for broader public review.
• November 2025 | Public Review Draft Released. Following revisions based on CSC input, the Public Review Draft CERP was released.
• February 2026 | CSC Adopts Final Draft Plan. After months of review, discussion, and refinement, the East Oakland CSC voted to adopt the Final Draft Plan. This vote represented a major milestone, reflecting the committee's support for the plan's goals, strategies, and actions.
• March 11, 2026 | CEHJ Committee Meeting. The Air District’s Community Equity, Health & Justice (CEHJ) Committee reviewed the Final Draft Plan and voted unanimously to recommend it for approval by the full Air District Board of Directors.
• April 1, 2026 | Board of Directors Approves the Plan. The Air District Board of Directors voted unanimously to approve the East Oakland Community Emissions Reduction Plan, Right to Breathe: East Oakland Community Air Quality Justice Plan.
• June 15, 2026 | CARB Approves the Plan. The adopted CERP was submitted to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) on April 15, 2026, for Executive Officer review and approval. This submission initiated CARB’s 60-day review period and provided an additional opportunity for public review and comment.

Why East Oakland?

East Oakland was selected amongst high priority communities in the Bay Area due to longstanding air quality challenges, environmental justice issues, and health inequities. East Oakland organizations have partnered with the Air District to build community capacity, increase understanding of local air pollution and environmental justice issues, and bring together cross-agency partnerships necessary for improving environmental health and local air quality improvement.

The Air District is partnering with Communities for a Better Environment and other community-based organizations to create a community-based Steering Committee to develop the East Oakland AB 617 Community Emissions Reduction Plan. The purpose of the CERP is to develop community-led strategies to reduce harmful air pollution that impacts people where they live, work, play, and pray.

Plan Goals, Strategies, and Actions

The Right to Breathe: East Oakland Community Air Quality Justice Plan includes 32 strategies and 107 actions that aim to achieve the following goals:

• Goal 1
  Reduce East Oaklanders’ exposure to air pollution by decreasing emissions from sources identified by the community as top concerns.
• Goal 2
  Prioritize actions that have the opportunity to reduce disproportionately high health impacts associated with air pollution affecting East Oakland residents to achieve improvements in community health.
• Goal 3
  Empower East Oakland residents to participate in holding polluters accountable by combining their local knowledge with an understanding of emission sources, health impacts, air pollution regulations and reporting mechanisms.

East Oakland Community Mapping Project

The Air District launched the East Oakland Community Mapping Project in September 2023 to gather information to help us understand the air pollution concerns that are most important to the community. East Oakland community members were able to visit the East Oakland Community Map online and add information that will help inform strategies to reduce air pollution and protect public health in East Oakland. There were three categories of information that community members could add to the map:

Air Pollution Concerns: Air pollution from buildings, industry, trains, trucks, ships, etc.

Locations Where People Gather: Places where people gather – especially seniors, young people, or community members with increased health risks.

Community Strengths and Resources: Locations which represent the creativity, culture, history, heritage, and strength of the community.

Please visit the East Oakland Community Map online to review the information collected.

Meetings and Events

Documents and Materials

Plans and Studies Affecting East Oakland

• East Oakland Neighborhoods Initiative Plan
• Healthy Development Guidelines
• Resilient Oakland Playbook
• East Oakland Mobility Action Plan
• Coliseum Area Specific Plan
• City of Oakland General Plan