The (California) Air Resources Board is reminding and encouraging small business owners of off-road diesel vehicles, portable diesel equipment, or diesel marine vessels and engines to take advantage of this loan assistance opportunity. The loan must be completed and executed by August 31, 2012.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act award provided $5 million to the loan assistance program to reduce harmful diesel emissions by helping owners upgrade or replace their older vehicles, equipment, or engines. This joint program between the ARB and the California Pollution Control Financing Authority (CPCFA) provides competitive-rate loan opportunities in the current tight credit market to small businesses.
The CPCFA will process the loans through its existing California Capital Access Program (CalCAP). Interested borrowers can apply for a loan by completing application at a participating CalCAP lender. The lenders determine the applicant’s eligibility for a loan. For a list of participating financial institutions, go to:
http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/cpcfa/calcap/contributor/offroad_lenders.pdf
Borrowers may also be eligible for local non-federal grant awards which can be combined with this loan assistance program. For example, Carl Moyer grants would be eligible.
The following fact sheet links further describe the program:
• Off-Road Diesel Vehicles
http://www.arb.ca.gov/ba/loan/off-road/documents/calcap_ag_off_road.pdf
• Portable Diesel Equipment
http://www.arb.ca.gov/ba/loan/off-road/documents/calcap_portable_equip.pdf
• Diesel Marine Vessels and Engines
http://www.arb.ca.gov/html/fact_sheets/calcap_marine_vessels.pdf
Additional information is available at:
http://www.arb.ca.gov/ba/loan/off-road/off-road.htm. You can also call ARB’s diesel hotline at 1-866-6DIESEL or email 8666diesel@arb.ca.gov. For marine vessels, call ARB’s commercial harbor craft hotline at 888-442-7238 or email harborcraft@arb.ca.gov.