As the South Coast Air Basin moves into “smog season,” local businesses and city and county fleet operators will be getting a $12.4 million boost to support their smog-fighting efforts. The funding from the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC) will help to place into service up to 380 clean, advanced technology vehicles, ranging from trash trucks and street sweepers to transit buses, it was announced on June 10. Also included in the funding program is cleaner heavy off-road construction equipment. Old, uncontrolled construction equipment is a significant source of air pollution in Southern California. Clean vehicle technologies funded through these awards include compressed and liquefied natural gas vehicles, as well as gasoline-electric hybrid buses and propane-powered vehicles. The MSRC allocates funding from a $4 surcharge on vehicle license fees, specifically to be used to support local projects designed to reduce air pollution from mobile sources such as cars, trucks and buses. Thirty cents of every surcharge dollar goes into the MSRC fund. Additional funds will be awarded later this summer. Cities and counties receive 40 cents from every dollar to apply to mobile source emission reduction efforts. More than 30 local governments are receiving matching funds from the MSRC through these latest awards.