 Thank you for being here. I'm Jimmy Holm's president, I'll be sure to say 20 cents to you on behalf of Mr. Cheryl and the City of San Antonio, who welcome you to the San Antonio Air Quality Summit. We have a great lineup of speakers today. We'll be hearing from them over lunch, and just before 1 o'clock, we'll have a blue boat with Mayor Ron Nairberg for businesses taking today's air quality collection. We'll talk about that soon. First, the San Antonio Executive Journal cannot free this program without the support of the City of San Antonio State Building Department, especially Liza Meier, who will help you master your program and help you master it. Liza, please stand so we can all recognize you. We'll represent from the following event partners. Please stand so we can say thanks and recognize you today for helping us create our first business journal, Air Quality Summit. We have a Metropolitan Transit Center for Energy, Justice, Advocates, and Contra Associations, and we also want to thank our Association partners, Alamo Area Council of Governments, San Antonio Green, who have to thank all our partners for their guidance. Before we start with the program, I want to get personal for a minute, some off the record kind of things. You run into someone who went to high school in 20 to 30 plus years ago, and that person was totally different now, shockingly though, it's in a good way, plus they're fantastic shit, and you're not. And it kind of bothers you a little bit. That guy that had that full hair, and you know, they look great, you know, talking about yourself. Well, let me tell you, from an initial friend, I found out I went to high school with Ron Hereberg. Yeah. So, I was a year old, and I played just about every sport. Four years of football, I was in great shape back then. I know how it was pretty big stuff back then. I was a class president. Well, Ron Hereberg found out he loves science back then, he still does, worked a bit on the school newspaper, and it was in the van. And probably weighed 100 pounds soaking wet. I just looked back and saw a picture. And Ron said to our editor, Tony and I, recently, he was a little bit of a science nerd back then, and I didn't correct him, you know what I'm talking about. Well, since high school, things have really changed, majorly, big time for Ron and for myself. I think Ron has been working out every day since graduation. And I've read about his protein shake routine and an especially new story from Moscow. As for me, I must confess, I've been out of the gym for a little bit. So now, I'm the nerd running the newspaper, and our extremely fit mayor, Ron Hereberg, is the most popular guy in the greatest city in the Tri-Centennial, celebration year and beyond. So let's give a hand for Ron here. Now, I'm gonna try to segue back to the three of what we're here today, which is a business journal, Air Supporting Summit. It isn't about Ron and my health and social standings. This issue is serious. I asked one of our special guest speakers this week, Roman Sharma, why should San Antonio businesses in the community care about the EPA's designations and not attain those on those in San Antonio? And he said, are you kidding? Even if it is a marginal amount of attainment designation, Roman had said the following. In a captivated environment, like a non-attainment area, you have to figure out how to reduce emissions in order to continue growing small and large businesses, as well as support the population growth of our area. With that being said, many of you may nevertheless be asking why the business journal is hosting an Air Supporting Summit. The Tri-Centennial Business Journal shares the concern of many, but not enough folks in our community in general and in the business community particularly, fully appreciate the significance that our air quality has on so many levels yet. I won't go into too deeply the significance because that's what our distinguished speakers are here to do today. But I will briefly say that San Antonio will likely be challenging in the coming years to improve our air quality in years to come and measured against federal standards that are expected to get tougher very soon. As you know, San Antonio is among the largest city in the United States, if not the largest, that's considered an attainment with respect to previous standards. It's a designation that many don't know about because being in attainment has meant that they haven't been inconvenienced in any way. I lived in Houston for nine years. It affects every single day. Every citizen of your daily life, when you go to gas pump, you know they're monitoring your emissions. And also, it's meant that the city has been able to grow as it sees fit in being in an attainment city. And that will change in many ways that people have no idea right now about. Today's program we think will be enlightening in that regard. And we hope it will be a catalyst for action. Our presenters comment this issue from various perspectives stemming from the organization's missions and the role each of those organizations can and does play in improving our air. I would like to recognize a few San Antonio businesses here in the tents today who have started the movement of clearing the air for San Antonio. My saving name will be standing recognize. Stephen Hennigan, CEO, credit given, added solar to credit given headquarters in 11 branches that are also working on other many missions. Dictate CEO, Mission Park Funeral Chapels and Cemetery added solar at the center location and switched most of the company's fleet to electric vehicles. We have destruction added solar in the company headquarters and one C and G power truck, one electric vehicle and eight C and G power corporates. And I want to thank the San Antonio River Company has added solar to their wastewater treatment operations so to serve as a cost setting measure in educational tool. Regarding river for me, I want to add that I believe we need more low impact development which has continued to encourage and sense to build strong modern sustainable buildings that are good for our environment, water sources can recruit it, a top talent in companies from other cities. Thank you all for helping clear the air. Thank you. Now moving on to today's presenters, BM and the public transit. Fortunately, Jeffrey Munt, CEO here, was not able to attend today, but we will hear from New Orleans director of government and community relations for BM and the public transit. We'll also hear from Rick Luna, senior manager, energy manager, CPS energy, Diane Rath, executive director of the Iowa area council of governments. Dr. Rick Sashin, president of the Texas aggregate and concrete association and Rohit Sharma of Lino-Basel in the eight hour ozone state implementation playing a coalition. Before we get to our speakers, I want to introduce today's keynote. Just to reiterate behind the way back, although we didn't know it, I was very further in high school stories about myself. Instead, I was just invited to sign my yearbook letter, which I did read. I was pretty sure about it. I want to throw it out. And also, this just happens at a time when our community around the country are having to deal more directly with the reality of living and not attainment. San Antonio voters have elected new members of care very deeply about the issues, promised to make it a plan already for this administration. Mayor Ron Merimer has been part of the Iowa area council of governments and has spoken frequently in public forums about the importance of doing more to get San Antonio cleaner care. He really sees this as a quality of life issue because it's a quality of health issue. It is our hope that our community will support him on this. So with that ladies and gentlemen, please welcome my formal classmate and mayor, Mayor Ron Merimer. Thank you, Tony, from all of my colleagues over at the Anderson High School, class nine to five, Anderson Trojans. It is true, I was in the band for four years. I marched while Tony was playing. And I do have to say that every single football game, Anderson won half times. And I didn't say I was good. Excuse me. Thank you all for being here. Clean air for me today means that I'm finally starting to breathe a little bit easier after suffering from all the allergies. And as I was driving, I apologize for a few minutes late. It also means that there are some very practical solutions to clean air. One of them would be to get our driver's ed institutions to start teaching people how to merge on the highway at normal speeds. But welcome everyone. Today is an important day for all of us. And I come to you today, not as a clean air expert, but as the mayor of San Antonio and as a dad. When I was first elected, my son, Jonah, asked me to take care of the facts. We had taken a trip out with my then colleague, Eloy, who's now over at VIA. We'd taken a stack trip out to the Bracken's Act day to see the majesty of this wonderful part of our landscape. And as you know back then, or as you may know back then, it was under threat of development, which would have threatened the economy as well as this very important water feature in our landscape. I worked in conjunction with public and private partners to ensure that the world's largest back cave would be preserved in spite of the sprawl that our city was experiencing. Today, it's hailed as one of the most effective public and private partnerships in our state with regard to environmental sustainability. And the bats are safe too. Then Jonah asked me to take care of the trees and the water. Included in that is the commitment to clean air. Every mayor strives to build a healthy community, which is where the basics are done well. And overall, I'm responsible for making sure that San Antonio is a better place to live for all families. A place where businesses can thrive and where our residents can achieve success. And for those of you who have any of my fiesta medals over the last few years, each one of them from year to year is a picture of what Jonah has asked me to promise to do. First year was the bass, the second year was a drop of water, the third year was the trees and the air, and it goes on from there. This event, which is established that we can harmoniously cultivate a healthy community and a vigorous economy as a testament to the work that we've done to bridge the divide between business leaders and environmental advocates. And I see all of my friends from both sides of that equation here. It's a testament to our shared goal of creating a San Antonio that is resilient. One that does not need to divide communities. One in which it understands that when we come together for these difficult conversations, we create solutions, practical solutions. Because resilience isn't just about clean air and about water quality. It's about business practices that can endure in policies that effectively help us balance growth and sustainability. It's what you've been doing as smart business to evolve and prosper in an ever-changing world. I have with me today a letter from Governor Abbott to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. And it was dated September 27th, 2017. It is a request from the Governor urging Administrator Pruitt to consider delaying the designation of San Antonio. I came into this office with a set of core convictions that have continued to guide me as your mayor. And I believe we must never hesitate to act. So, as while Administrator Pruitt and Governor Abbott are deliberating and negotiating, I'm here to say San Antonio needs to continue to retain its title as the largest clean air city in the nation. Even in the midst of ambiguity, our course of action is very clear that we must attain clean air status. The medical science is unanimous. Poor air quality is a significant threat to human health. So regardless of the EPA's decision or lack thereof on how San Antonio is designated, we need to keep in mind that the primary focal point is the health of our residents, especially our children, your future employees. The charge to improve air quality is going to take some uncompromising decisions for each of us, and there are no quick fixes. This is among the biggest challenges facing our region that will present hurdles, as we know, for a flourishing economy. According to a recent study by the Alboa area councils of government, a federal clean air mandate could cost the San Antonio economy alone somewhere between $3.2 and $36.2 billion. That's a lot of money. We are better than that. A strong San Antonio economy was built and continues to prosper with the help of a business community that delivers the best ideas and the best products with unequivocal elements of risk and reinvention. You in the business community have been very well in displaying the essential spirit of innovation and practical problem solving that is needed to address our cleaner solutions now more than ever. But we all need to agree to start on the premise that we all value the best of both, clean air and a healthy economy, and to take a new strategic outlook on the air that we all breathe. During this event, you will discover all the tools you need to be part of the solution. You will have an opportunity to publicly renew your commitment to air quality by completing the pledge cards which are located on your table. Some of the recommendations on the card will potentially challenge you to incentivize employee alternative transportation choices such as busing or carpooling to work. While the other policies focus on fleets and energy conservation. City staff, and thank you all for the constant work that you've given to guide us, is here and will recognize you in your pledge to clean air on the City of San Antonio's website. This event as a chip for all of us really does give me hope and I know there are a lot of people watching us in this room because the premise that we can clean our air is not one that moves forward unless we're all in the room together. And for the first time in our city's history with regard to our intervention into clean air strategies, we're finally all in the same room. You have my gratitude for the efforts and your assurance as stewards of our great community. And I look forward to working with you and other members of our business community on this very important topic. So I do want to thank you all for being here today as a testament to your interest in building a San Antonio that is resilient, that is sustainable, and that is forward thinking. Our commitment to clean air does not come at the cost of a strong economy, but it's fortified by the work that each of you do to ensure that we leave a better San Antonio for our kids. And at the end of the day, isn't that what we're all trying to do, whether we're in business or civic life or in nonprofit or in activism. We're simply trying to make sure that the San Antonio we leave our children as better than the one that we inherited ourselves. And I can't think of a better way to underscore that message in the midst of a community that's gonna be growing by leaps and bounds that we'll expect another million and a half people to be living among us in the next three decades that we hold our ground on clean air. And we know, as you do, that the choices are going to be tough. But the important point in all this is people argue back while there's no federal mandate, there's no federal backstop. Remind them that the medical professionals in the room must be uncompromising about your children's health. Remind us also that where we have already set the federal standards is not where we need to be. We need to be better than that. So regardless of where that standard ends up being with regard to a designation, we need to be shooting for better than we are today and that will continue as the process unfolds. I know that we have the same goals to ensure that San Antonio we pass on to our kids is better than the ones we found is cleaner, more efficient and intensely focused on providing opportunity for all of our residents. When I think of Jonah, I think of the world that he will inherit. Join me today in ensuring that his future and the future of your children is one where they won't have to worry about federal sanctions. San Antonio is a leader in clean air and that commitment starts today with each and every one of us. And one final note about clean air and health and opportunity for all of our residents. We've had a lot of conversations about this notion of equity. Health is equity. When we provide for clean air for our children, we are providing for an equitable community. When we make sure that it doesn't matter whether you live in San Antonio or in Boston or in Mexico or wherever else, we all are working together to ensure cleaner air for our own communities, but also for the world that we share. That's equity. I want San Antonio to be a partner in that and I know you do too. So thank you for your time, your commitment, your hope. Together we will build a San Antonio that is indeed prepared for its future. Thank you very much. We appreciate you being here. We look forward to working with you to help engage San Antonio's business community on their side. We're not going to take a break for lunch. We're going to keep going. We want to get a lot of great content to share with you. So I hope you're enjoying your lunch. Our first presenter is Lee Roy, our Director of Government of Clean Community Relations for DEA and Metropolitan Community. DEA has injected a distinct environmentally conscious aspect into the organization's overall mission, which rise on top of the inherent environmental benefits of having a robust, wide-reviewed public transportation system. This is challenging to speak for, especially following the mayor. So hopefully you'll bear with me for the next few minutes when we talk about some of the activities that DEA has undertaken, if we can pull up that presentation, that would be a great help. While that's loaded, if you want to point out to everyone, on her places is a pamphlet for DEA Works. This is our employee employer-commuter benefit program. We have over 100 businesses participating today with over 10,000 employees making transit part of their daily commute. We've got staff here that can help answer any questions you may have about how we can incorporate DEA Works into your company and how we can partner with you to bring transit as an option for your employees to save their time, save them some headaches in the morning with the commute, and most of all, help clean the campus. Because when we are putting people into transit, we are taking roads off the road, we are able to have a positive environmental impact. I see the presentation is up, so we're going to go ahead and jump on in. Forgive the game of thrones reference, I think this is what we're all expecting every morning. At least I know this is what I deal with. Winter is coming. We have a million residents coming to the San Antonio region by 2040, or put it another way, the city of Austin is coming and they're bringing all their cars. And if you really want to see what winter looks like, we can go up I-10 a little bit and look at the KB Freeway in Houston. This was a two plus billion dollar roadway reconstruction project. Expanded the roadway, 23 lanes across of its widest sections, including HOV lanes, which we love. They are providing a way to move people not just cars. But it's also an example of how latent demand starts influencing and impacting our transportation system. Today, well, if I could actually be on the right slide, the roadway skipped it. Today it takes longer to go from downtown in the Katie, from Katie into downtown Houston than it did before the two billion dollar reconstruction project. In the morning it's almost 30% more and the afternoon it's almost a 40% increase in your commute. So the concept of bigger is always better may not necessarily apply when it comes to transportation. We need to look at ways to do things smarter instead of simply adding more lanes and putting more asphalt or concrete on the ground. But we do know the future is bright. We do know there are options and opportunities ahead of us as a community to make a lasting positive impact upon not only this generation, but the generations to come. Mayor, we can give Jonah an opportunity to have mass transit beyond just rubber tires on the road. And that's what we're focusing on at VA on a daily basis. Our board last year adopted our 2040 vision. It's three plans, building a better bus network, investing in building and rapid transit and integrating technology into smart transit to help advance the community. On the building a better bus system, we're already making progress on that today with the leadership of Mayor Nernberg and members of the San Antonio City Council. This fiscal year, for the first time, the city of San Antonio is investing $4.3 million into VA to increase frequency on nine routes and nine key corridors. And that really deserves a round of applause for the good care and work that we have. And this is our vision for 2040. We want to guarantee that even in peak morning, evening rush hour, you have a bus coming every 20 minutes. Today, there's one line in the VA system that has service better than 20 minutes. And that's pretty well on Fredericksburg Road. One line out of 92 routes that we serve. We want to look at later hours of service. We recognize our community works 24-7, we do as an agency, but we need to have vehicles on the road later to provide that option for workers who may be coming off at 11 o'clock, at 12 o'clock at night. We're going to be expanding Primo. We actually have two new Primo routes under construction right now on Zorz and Laura and Military. We're looking at how we can double the fleet size and also find easier ways to pay fares so we can get people on board quicker and have less waiting at the light at the stops for people dealing with cash to be able to board. And while we're working on these 20-40 plans, we're also working on ways we can accelerate the smart growth today. What you're seeing on the screen now are just some of the projects that VA has been investing in. From Central Plaza at VA-VA, which will have 1.1 million passengers this year come through that plaza, to the installation of 1,000 new shelters. We'll put that to perspective. From 1978 through 2013, VA installed 1,300 shelters in our service area. In the last three years, we've added 1,000 to that. When our 1,000th shelter goes in later this year, 95% of the boardings that happen in the VA system will happen at a stop with shade and a shelter. That is an unheard of number in a system this size. And if you look nationally, we actually know transit properties that are taking shelters away from the community because they don't want the paper to maintenance. We're making that investment to give our customers our passengers an amenity throughout the region. We're building a new park and structure at Stone Oak in 281, and we open at the end of this year. 400 space garage that will also see an express route coming from Stone Oak and an express route going across town into the South Texas Medical Center. So it's a different type of service that we're planning to provide. We've also invested in more environmentally friendly vehicles. You may have seen them on the road later. There are new vehicles that are red, gray, and white. We like to say the red on the outside and green on the inside. This is our compressed natural gas fleet. 97% less knots emitted than the diesel vehicles they replaced. We have 270 of those vehicles on the road today. And because of this investment began at its home to the largest seed fueling station in North America. We have mainly committed to environmental quality that exists throughout our entire region. And I will discuss the projects on the bottom. Let's jump into the Rapid Transit Network because I know this is where we're starting in a lot more attention. We're looking at ways to bring less rapid transit in a dedicated right of way and more possibly light rail transit to this community. It's not going to be an easy discussion. There will be a lot of emotional conversations we have to have over the coming months and years as we work through this. But this is the right time to start having this discussion. This is the right time to start putting forward a plan to bring the next generation of multi-mobile transportation options to a community that is growing by rates and balance. And so that's what we've been doing working on these four corridors, going from downtown up to the Stono area by the airport, going up to the UTSA area in the medical center on the northwest, looking east-west from AT&T Center over to the Kelly-Lackland area, and looking from Brook City base into downtown. These four corridors have a high potential for providing that transformative transit project that we know the community is wanting and the community is asking for. But we will not abandon having that fundamental better-fussed system underlying all that we do. It's not a fever or a voice for us. It's an all of the above. And finally, we're looking at smart transfers. What do we need by smart transfer? Well, 10 years ago, who would have known that we would have had the iPhones and 10 Android to the palm of our hand? We don't know what 10 years from now we look like, but we know today we're working with our mobile developers to make sure we've got great mobile apps. You haven't downloaded it yet? Be it the mobile, buy your fare online, do your trip planning. I see the stop sign somewhere, almost done. No problem. And it's also our commitment to bring a look at ways to integrate technology as we move forward. As innovation keeps happening, transit has to change as well, and we're glad to do that. This is what our vision looks like. 41 routes with vehicles arriving every 15 minutes. Seven corridors of either bus rapid transit in a zone lane or light rail transit. Seven billion dollar capital cost. We are talking significant dollars in investment needed to make this vision a reality. This is what keeps our 2,000 employees focused every day, providing that opportunity and the public service and providing transit. And what I wanted to leave you with is this. The end with the kind of sad two lines is our high frequency network today. Those are the lines that provide 10 to 12 minute frequency across San Antonio and South Texas. If you look at our 2040 plans, you see them where a real bus network. You see a network that's designed for transit to work for everyone. Or if you put it another way, this is the DNA of our system. Where you see the green is transit that we know based on research. If you have a car, that type of transit will be attracted to you. 10 to 12 minute frequency. You can see the small amount we have today. It is expanding thanks to the City of San Antonio's investment and we appreciate that. But 2040 is where we're still aiming. We're looking for that transformative system so transit becomes a choice and not simply an occasional option for you. Thank you for your time this morning. And again, we have staff standing by outside to talk with you about VA works. We'd love to be able to expand our numbers and add more of your employers and employees to the transit family. Thank you so much. Thanks to you Roy. Who agrees that riding the bus is mass transit? So if we don't ride the bus and we don't increase that frequency line, I want for rail, I want for investing in the future. The best way to show that the demand is to ride the bus and create demand so we can start to invest in the future. Our next presenter is Rick, the senior manager and community manager at CPSU. San Antonio's portion of the city's Cali owned utility desk. They're the largest in this industry. That's among what helps you take these steps to reduce the carbon footprint. Rick is key part of the management team. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to represent CPS Energy here today. So I'm here to continue with the theme of solutions and things that we can all do to help improve our quality. And in my case, we're gonna be talking about that through the lens of energy efficiency, solar, renewable energy, electric vehicles and other solutions. So let me start by talking a little bit about how we're able to do these things in San Antonio. Two years back, our city council had the vision to approve the Safer Tomorrow Energy Plan which really in a significant way opened up the opportunities to promote and encourage customers with their homes and businesses to save energy and really unleash a whole array of programs that customers could engage with. Today we offer over 20 different solutions that customers can adopt to help them save energy in a significant way. Why is that important for the theme today? Reduced energy use has a direct correlation to improve their quality. We have accountability procedures for our tech program. Part of what we report back every year is the reduced emissions from the energy efficiency. And so I have a table up here that indicates the amount of significant amounts of pollutants that are avoided through the STEP Energy Efficiency Program. And so as I said, really STEP unleashed the opportunity for customers to engage in energy efficiency in a significant way. And we're seeing the customers are really embracing it in large numbers. So for example, today we have 10,000 customers who have adopted solar, which is a huge number. And I'll show you a graph in a minute that shows you just the absolute escalation in the last couple of years in the number of people who are looking at solar. Connected devices, thermostats have become very much a popular item for consumers. And so we run a series of programs for customers to connect those thermostats through the CPS network. And we have the ability to reduce energy on peak days, which makes a significant contribution to the reducing peak on the hotter days of the year. We've weatherized 17,000 homes. I continue to do this work every day, helping low-income customers through improvements up to their home and improvements to help them save energy and reduce their bill, reduce their bill. And finally, our large commercial customers are really stepped up. We have over 400 large businesses who on a given day in the summer are available to reduce energy demand. And so if you can go as Target, if you can go Walmart, a number of hotels, large commercial customers who are available and ready to reduce demand at our request. And so there's a wide range of programs that are available to customers. One of the things that is really one of the bedrocks of our efforts is to have a solution for every customer, whether you are interested in saving energy through improvements to your building, whether you are interested in solar, whether you're interested in electric vehicles. We have a charging network that our customers can hook onto. We have multiple thermostat options. And as I mentioned earlier, we have weatherization. So we're trying to cover the entire range of solutions that customers are looking for. And we introduce new programs every year. This year, we rolled out a new core roof program to encourage customers to use energy efficient roof materials in their home. And we're seeming to look at other opportunities to continue to grow energy efficiency in our community. And so the step program has this goal of 771 megawatts of reduced capacity by 2020. I'll tell you that we're about 70% of the way there. And we still have the other 30% to go. And that's what we need your help, is to step up and adopt some of these solutions. So I'll start with, we have three quick ideas for you. The first one is we have an array of low and low cost programs that are available for you. So if, for example, you haven't changed the LED light bulbs in your home, we have retail buy down programs at Costco, Wal-Mart, Sands. We have connected thermostat programs that we run. Coming up on Black Friday, we'll have a $150 rebate that customers can take if you want to purchase a NAS thermostat or an equally thermostat. There's plenty of different options that you can purchase if you connect to the CCIS network, we'll give you a $150 rebate. Pay down a significant part of the cost of that. If you're a small business person, we have two new programs now that will help you to save energy and improve the performance of these units without having to make the replacement, right? So in a lot of cases, the units, they may have 10 years of useful life, but they can still use it to them that would help save energy to your business. So give us a call if you're interested in that approach. Earlier, someone mentioned solar and all the businesses that is adopted solar. We have a solar rebate program. We have other solar programs that help customers to be able to adopt solar. There are 55 companies that say, well, you'll now just take the solar system from your houses and or your business. And so we encourage you to explore solar if you haven't already done so. You'll see there at the graph, it shows just the amount of capacity that it's been adding for our solar customer. We're now up to 80 megabytes, which is a significant amount. Last thing, and I'll end with this solution is our reduced my use program. Hopefully you've seen these messages we're now messaging brought to the customer on the hottest day of the year to encourage them to reduce energy. And then we're following up with a message to tell you how you did, relative to your neighbors. And the idea here is you wanna really drive a broad engagement with energy use, really make you aware of tips and things that you can do to reduce energy on those hottest days. And so with that, I'll then I ask you to please go to our website or give us a call at 353-2-Safe. We're there to help you help you find solutions and help you again improve your quality, save some money, and improve the operation of your home business. Thank you very much. The agency that handles the actual monitoring for air quality. With that, I'll turn the microphone over to you. Good morning, and thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here, but I have to tell you, you are a wonderful audience because it's really, really hard to be speaker after speaker after speaker, but you really can't move, and we're really stuck in this fight. And they told me I couldn't move. So I'm sorry, I need to go very much for your patience. I want to take a little bit, because if you want, go on, there we go, thank you. About eight cobs, most people have closed who we are. We are a political subdivision state. We have 13 counties going up to Gillespie County, going down to McDonough County, so we have most of the egoport in our area, and very different demographic in the north. And we have 11 major programs, everything that you can't do can extend borders, as all of our colleagues who live in the state of Texas and throughout the country, there's some coverage, you know, that's everywhere. Today, we're talking about one of our most important lines for this region is air quality. And one thing I want to mention, because we've tried a lot of things, and we're going to have a million more people by, you know, in the next 23 years. We talked about air quality in millions and millions more. We have new brothels, which is the fastest-going city percentage-wise in the country this year. But let's look at the region. Let's really start north of Austin. Let's start with Brown Rock. Let's start with Northern County. Let's go all the way to our southern border, past Rio. And let's go to the east and go to the west. Go out to the west and go all the way over to McDonough. You're talking about seven million people coming to this region. That's what we need to focus on. We need to focus on the air and the transportation and all the issues that have been impacted by seven million people. And we talk about the fact that air, we have our designation, we have all this stuff. Why? OK, so the people in this room are very knowledgeable, but there's a lot of people that really don't understand that the law really got there to go. We know that that really dictates health. And the only reason is for health. And so they set the plan for six different policies, the one that matters to us is Arizona. And very importantly, they're protected by statutes containing the two-and-a-half cost of what their revenue is. And I think the mayor, for reference to that, we have had some challenges this year. And so since two years, the city's been experiencing a near non-attainment than until you're the largest. The largest is the entire country that is in attainment. That's the only reason we have Toyota here in San Antonio. They wouldn't have come here had they not been in attainment. They didn't go to Dallas for that specific reason. They had a very real cost when you go into non-attainment. We are the largest region, and I always have to say, our partners, I'm very, very grateful to the city, to their county, thank you all, and to CPS Energy for stepping forward and filling that funding gap when the governor reached out and saying it was a local responsibility. So our public health partners stepped up, and very importantly, our private partners stepped up, because that's what it takes. It takes public and private working together to have a solution. So I really and truly have to express our deep approach to appreciation, to steer through this year, to CPS, to talk of who is here, to our core cement countries. They demonstrate how important their quality is for all of us by filling that funding gap. Now let's talk about it a little bit. So in our area, 68% of our ozone comes from outside the region, 32% comes from inside. What's very important about that is that we can only impact 32%, but critically, if we're going to have challenges, and we are doing it through voluntary compliance. Over the years since the mid-19s, we have brought our ozone levels and we have to put them down. So the fact that the 68% comes from outside does not mean that we can't do anything. In fact, all we have to do is lower our ozone levels 5% more, and we are home free. We can do it if we get there the steps that are in place. And very importantly, thanks to the efforts that CPS is making, the significant efforts that VIA is making. You all don't understand what they are doing to this region to drive it down through the changes in course. We are making very good progress, but only if we partner together to continue the efforts in the approach that we've made. Mayor, I have to thank you. With your leadership, we're continuing the efforts that really started under then Mayor Wolf, then Councilman Lyle Larson, and a county commissioner from Comal to really bring the region together to set in place those voluntary measures that have allowed us to go from 90 parts per billion down to 72 and 73 parts per billion. And the solution is the voluntary, continually partnership, collaboration, commitment, education and bringing both public and private sector together because all of us will pay the price if we don't. So when we look at where those don't come from, every one of those that you have heard can impact it. Used to be the problem with cars, cars and the road, the technology has gotten so much better that no longer is the cars, it really is point sourced in my opinion. It means a single place. So the contraaction that CPS is making on closing the dealing plan early has a huge impact on all of our fairs. The contribution that our commit plants are making has a tremendous difference. Every penny to stay invested in technology helps all of our health and helps this area. Every penny that all companies have invested in legal parts continues to improve that. So all of our larger businesses, what Toyota manufacturers are doing, that's a huge improvement. The rest is up to us on the voluntary measure that we have to pay. And we've done that. Just some over 2012 when we started our voluntary collaboration with PPA, and we've all, all the way down to 72, 73, through voluntary efforts. Remember, we were in the 90s, in the middle 90s. So we're now down to 72, 73. And what's important is that it's not all fair count. One of our monitors, it was full compliance and a lot of blue despair. We have two that are slightly over. Slowly over and cut it. We don't get to rest on our lords. We have to continue driving. We have to continue our effort so that we don't have to worry about it. Because the economic cost is too much. Yes, Houston has made improvements to that. They've been in moderate to the very beginning. They've spent billions on it. When you visit Houston, have you ever wondered why your gas costs more? Jimmy and I were talking about it before you started, 20, 30 cents a gallon. Yeah, not your gas until the sea was white. You go for your car inspection. You're gonna pay $30, $40 or more just for your car inspection. So there's a very real cost if we don't continue to make improvements and we don't continue to drive it down. As long as we demonstrate the improvement, we are making very good strides. And as we've gone over and reviewed the changes that we've been making, we're on the right path. We have to continue it. Otherwise, we will have a problem with even worse congestion. Because the worst consequence of even marginal, is that our roads will be more congested and cut off non-attainment regulations. Having to purely have everything take at least a year longer to go through an approval process. And everything that allows a non-attainment takes longer. So we appreciate what you're doing. The costs as the mayor referenced, at marginal, up to a billion dollars a year for our region. And it's a real cost, it's lost jobs and individual costs that will be impacted. And that's without what the industry has to do. And why do we do this? We do it for our health. So the mayor referenced the governor's letter, trying to have EPA take into consideration what's special about our region and note the significant improvement we've made so that we're allowed to continue doing our volunteering measures with public and private partnerships and not have the burden and the force measures from outside. So I appreciate it's a lot of information. I thank you, but we need to continue the partnership. Thank you mayor for this leadership because that will continue to drive it down so we really don't have to worry about it anymore. Thank you. Thank you Diane. Our next presenter is Dr. Rich. She's, I don't know if it's ever. I've talked to him several times prior to this. Sexist, sexist, that's why I have an editor telling me that he's the president of the Texas Aggregate and Contribute Association. The industry that Rich represents, by its very nature, very intentional when it comes to contributing to the concentration of air particles that we've had before with respect to federal air pollution. At the same time, his association has acted and tried to be a part of the solution. And I'll let him tell you about it. Rich, take a look. It's always nice when I get called back and somebody wants to bring sexy back to the stage. So, I certainly appreciate that. I'm here to kind of address some of the growth that I think we've had. Several speakers, key speakers, talk about the demand and the size that we are growing to. And one, three things I can absolutely guarantee for you, debt, taxes, and material consumption, and tracks on a linear fashion population. I've got to come up with a cool one word for that. Like, debt. But one thing that that demand absolutely tells us in this room is that our industry, in San Antonio, Major Metropolitan Area, we have 37 aggregate facilities. We have over 80 ready plants and we have four cement wells. Every one of those facilities is critical and vital to supporting the growth that you just heard about. Every one of you got here today through our industry. It was the home you live in, for the road you train, and you will be able to drive on to get here. But our facilities are often associated with the missions, which we do have. Most of those missions are particulate. They're governed by a variety of state and federal agencies, and I'll give you two other key statistics for you. We are governed, and many of your facilities are governed by the largest environmental regulatory body in the world, as the EPA. The second largest regulatory body in the world is the TCEQ, and our facilities are governed by both of those permits. And in fact, many of the particulate matter that you are associated with are facilities, an actual facility, or a concrete facility. Those are the same particulate matter that you find on uncreated roads or home-page parking lots and are generally settled in on the property. And our cement wells, while they are a point source of emissions, are not major contributors to some of the emission counts that you've seen on some of the graphs. But that doesn't stop us from being parked with a cop and supporting those emissions. That doesn't stop us from voluntarily investing in technology to improve or reduce our emissions. That certainly doesn't stop us from compliance with permits, and that's the other last thing I wanna leave you with. The permits that facilities and industrial facilities have to operate on to support growth, compliance with permits is environmental stewardess. Because they are both protected with the communities in which they operate and still support growth. And that is the one key thing I wanna leave you with is the importance of compliance with permits, established permit protocols, and reliance on those permits to protect the health and welfare of the community. Particularly one that's growing in the size and shape majority. And I'll leave you with one last thing that I always like to tell people about statistics. You saw that about a million and a half people by 2040 and for the UT grads in the room, that's only 23 years. As an A&M proud, I get to take that shot every time. In 23 years, a million and a half people, if you take the major metropolitan statistical area population here, let's call it three million, we're gonna add a million and a half in that time, they give us 23 years to build half of San Antonio that took us thankfully 300 years to get to it. We have 23 years to increase the size of San Antonio by 50% to accommodate that growth. These are staggering numbers. And part of that is the partnership that's gonna exist between all of us here to understand health, welfare, and community standards must be maintained by those of us on the industrial side, those of us on the regulatory side, and the community members in which we serve. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for allowing me to come in and talk about this. I'll never mispronounce that one again. Thank you. Our next presenter, our final presenter, is Robyn Sharma of 508. We've saved him for last because he's a particularly relevant story to tell us. Robyn has been an integral part of Houston region's efforts to reduce his air pollution. It's a city and region that has lived in the consequences of being anodized in the city. So his message is one, we all need to listen to him. He goes by road, I found out. I asked him, he told my roommate, because someone from the layer said, oh I know a road, so I asked him, is it, he told my roommate a road? And he said, my mom and you call me road. My friends call me road. And I said, oh, we have a road? And he said, but then they don't really well. And he's got a great presentation, very passionate about this on the issue. So keep walking the road. As Jamie said, I go by road to Sharla. I work for a company called Linedeld Cell. Linedeld Cell is a chemical manufacturing facility. We have 12 facilities in Texas. We have more in Ohio, Illinois. And we have a bunch of facilities in Europe and in Asia. But what I'm really here to talk to you about is the Houston experience. And that's why I was invited here. We've been doing this for in Houston, I've been doing it for Houston for 20 years. We've been doing it for Houston for 30 years all together. And some of the lessons learned, I think are important to share with other folks. I'm in front to share that with you today. The one thing you're gonna hear me say, a couple of times today, and I think it's really, really important. It's only been alluded to in some of the presentations before me. You can have both, you can have air quality and you can have economic growth. It is possible. I think we are accomplishing that in Houston. And I'm always surprised by folks that think it's one or the other and you cannot have both. And I think you've heard a little bit of this from the mayor today, is you can have both and it's been proven. And I'm hopefully you'll agree with me by the end of the presentation that you can have. So what I'm gonna talk to you about is, I'm gonna show you a little bit of the, and you saw some of this for the San Antonio area. So I'm gonna show you this from the Houston area. I set up some of the points that I'm gonna make. So we'll talk about the trends. We'll talk about the Houston area emissions, very similar to San Antonio, and apply a chart that you saw from Diane. I'll show you one for Houston. I'm gonna show you how this was accomplished over the last 25 years. Talk to you about the business group that I've loaned to in Houston that's done a lot of this work. And I'll summarize and do some takeaway points for you guys. Okay, lots of numbers. Don't get lost in the numbers. Lots of acronyms, all of that. Don't believe me to concentrate on any of that. Take a look generally speaking at the trends here. What you're seeing here is the days in Houston when the area monitors indicate exceedance of the air quality standard. So this is a measurement of the number of days that you'll see with the air quality standard. And what you have here is, if you take a look at the left side, this is not a four or five year trend. This is 1999 to the left of San Antonio's chart. Okay, so you're talking about 17 years here, but I'm trying to. And if you just look at the general trend, it doesn't matter what standards you're talking about. And by the way, there are multiple ozone standards. So when you talk ozone, you gotta kind of think about which standard you're gonna talk about. There's the 1979 one hour, 120-part Pavilion standard. There's the 1997 eight hour 84-part Pavilion standard. It's a 2008 75 PPP standard. And now we have the new 2015 70-part Pavilion standard. The reason I mentioned all that, this is a moving target. Those targets are continually moving down. So when you meet a standard, or just when you think you've met a standard, the target moves down. And it's continually moving down. This is a moving target by the ETA. That's the reason I mentioned that. So once again, look at the strength in Houston. Starting from 1999. I think this is a pretty tremendous improvement here. And by the way, we have 52 monitors in and around Houston. We started with around 10 months to 19, then we went to 25 and now we have 52 area monitors in and around Houston. It is the most monitored city not in the United States, in the world. We have the highest amount of air quality monitors. And these are monitors that actually measure air, right? So this is not modeling, this is not funny math. This is actual measurement of air quality. That's what these monitors are measuring. So that's what this data comes from. Okay, a little bit more specific. Let me break this down. These are NOx concentrations, nitrogen oxide concentrations. What's NOx? Where does it come from? NOx comes from essentially anything that burns puts off NOx. So combustion engine from cars, diesel engines, barbecue places, fireplaces, mine industry, the chemical industry. We have boilers, furnaces. Anything that burns puts off NOx. This is a measurement of NOx. NOx contributes to ozone formation. So this is again, a general trend of the NOx concentrations. And this is 30 years of data. So the left side of this is 1986. It's trying to, okay? So we've got a 66 production in NOx emissions. A reduction in NOx emissions over 30 years in Houston. HR VOC, I told you there'll be a lot of acronyms here. It'll be a test afterwards. This is highly reactive VOCs. Now this is an interesting story and this is the reason why I want to show you this chart. So highly reactive VOCs, this chart starts in 2006. Well why in 2006? This rule was put into place in Houston in 2005 and 2006, a tremendous amount of science was done by the state, by T.C.Q., and by our industry. And guess what it pointed to? It pointed to HR VOC type of emissions. And these are, let's get down here, you probably can't see them, but these are propylene, ethylene, butyne, butyne, okay? These come from our engines but they also come from industry. So we pointed at ourselves. So this rule was put into place. The science led us here and so we pointed to ourselves. So we put regulations and controls in place in Houston in 2005, 2006, and there has been about a 56% reduction in emissions since then. Okay, next clue. This is again, acronyms, E.T.E.X, E-D-E-X. It's a proponent of VOCs. Take the I.M. logic like this. They both are organic compounds. But this is benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes. Well where are those found? Again, in gasoline, if I'm gasoline, we're undercarvers, but also produced by the chemical industry. So let's look at B.T.E.X. And this is 30 years of data also. And you have about 83% reduction in B.T.E.X. This is a really, really good story here. 83% reductions in 30 years. All right, where am I going with all this? Here's a chart that summarizes what I just showed the last three or four slides that I showed you. And I think this is a very, very interesting slide. So you've got the one hour design value here at the top, and you've got the eight hour design value here at the top. In the background here, I'm noticing we're at population growth in Houston. So we are at 6 and 1 half, this is not just Houston, but the surrounding area of Houston, the amount of time that area is eight gallons in and around Houston. So you've got 6 and 1 half million people now. We've come from about four in 1991 of this sort of thing, crap. So with that population growth, and there's one bar that took off this chart I wish there were none, which is GDP, economic growth. And that economic growth mirrors this population growth here. So with population growth come cars, right? Car growth, population growth, GDP growth, all up, at the same time, your ozone emissions are down. There were plenty of people in Houston that said no way, no way Houston would ever meet any of the ozone standards. They said that for 120 parking buildings standard, we met it. They said that for the 84 parking building center, we needed it. They're now saying that for the 75 parking building standard there's 78 for March and 4 to 75. It can be done, back to my point that I made earlier. You can't have economic growth and you can't have your employees. These standards can be met. Okay, it takes a lot of work to do that. And I'll talk about that a little bit. All right, next slide. This is a really interesting slide. A lot of stuff on here, let me point out the important stuff here. When we saw some of this for San Antonio from Diane earlier. So the chart up at the top of this slide kind of shows you how those zones may. So you've got to have a sunshine in order to make ozone. On the left side here, you've got to have stacking conditions because if you have windy conditions, you don't make ozone. Yes, there has to be stacking. You have to have oxygen, or we've got oxygen all around us. And then at the bottom part of this chart are emissions. Okay? So that's the recipe to make ozone. Anyone of those is not there, you don't make ozone. So the cloudy day, you probably don't make ozone. On a windy day, you don't make ozone. Oxygen, there's nothing to do about that. Out of this chart, the only thing that we can control really is the bottom part of this, which is emissions. Right? Can't control the sun, can't control the wind, can't control the oxygen. So you control the emissions. So take a look at the bottom part of the chart, and this is for the Houston surrounding area. So the left side of this pie chart will tell you the VOC emissions, the bubble organic compound emissions, this is stuff that evaporates. This is paints, thinners, gasoline, anything that evaporates, VOCs, that's it. If you look at that chart, if you look at the red here, that's area sources, water area sources. 61% in Houston, the VOC emissions come from area sources. Small businesses, this is right cleaners, machine shops. 61%. Mobile sources, trucks, 23%. And then point sources, that's my industry, large manufacturing, right? 16%. Switch over to the knock side. Remember I said knocks, anything that burns puts out knocks. Knocks emissions, 67% come from mobile sources in Houston. Point sources, my industry gain is 26%, and then area sources, these are small businesses, 7%. But that's the emissions profile in Houston. Very important to know your emissions profile in your area, that helps you kind of plan, which is a lot of those emissions we saw today, we're planning. And our planning cannot be done unless you understand your emissions profile. The one important thing about this chart is when you're in an unattainment, you are what we call in a capped environment. You can't increase emissions, that makes sense, right? If you're in an unattainment area, essentially what that means is you cannot increase emissions. It's capped, right? So in a capped environment, how do you grow? How will be grown in 25 years in Houston in a capped environment? You have no choices where to use emissions in order to grow, that's how you grow. That's the secret to that success. Because if you're capped, you cannot increase those emissions. And if you don't agree to decrease those emissions, you cannot grow. And I'm talking about small businesses, medium businesses, large businesses, population powers, cannot grow. Because you cannot increase emissions. So the only way to go is to increase emissions and only grow, that's what we've been able to do. Just an example, I have three pages of this, I'm not gonna bore you with it, I'm gonna give you one page as an example of the kinds of programs and rules that have been implemented. Billions of dollars have been spent in the last 25 years on implementation of this program. 80% not street rule, that's why you saw this slide, the reduction in not emissions. We have put an 80% reduction not street rule in place. Here's the HR VOC, highly reactive VOC rule that went to place in 2005. Again, we were pointing at industry, we were pointing at ourselves, we put that rule in place. Voluntary use of IR cameras, these are called infrared cameras. These are cameras that you actually look at and you can see emissions, right? There's no room for this. We use this momentarily. And you said it. All right, business coalition. So I'm part of a business coalition and we call ourselves the eight hour news on sick coalition, the sick is standard implementation plan. Members currently varies from time to time, year to year, but right now we have eight basic and manufacturing and energy companies that belong to the eight hour news on sick coalition. All of us have business in the Eastern Galaxy and Missouri area, our mission. This is very, very important. Assurance that policy decisions are based upon the best scientific data. We like to use science. I've told you in an example in the HR VOC, that's where the science pointed, that's where we were, even though I pointed at ourselves. You gotta go work the science lead you, you gotta do the work, you gotta collect the data. And results in rules that are balanced and effective. And this goes to the statement that I made earlier about the balance, the balance between economic growth and air quality. Got to have that balance. It cannot be unbalanced or one of the other. Or you should not be, as you say. Balance and effective in achieving continued air quality improvement and a strong economy. This is what I've been harping on throughout this presentation. The kind of projects we've done are about 45 science projects in conjunction with the state agency conducting the EPA. We are very transparent. We post these things. We share the data with everybody. And the idea there is that we've been doing this for 25 to 30 years. If there's anything to learn for another area, don't make the mistakes again. And if you can learn from the work that we've done, by all means do so. And implement the things that work and don't implement the things that don't work. Okay, bottom line, take away. After all the numbers, the graphs, and all of us, what's the bottom line here? Back to what I've been saying. Bunch of times. You can cheat books. You can have air quality and you can have a good economy. And I would argue you have to have that in an area in order to grow. Truly understand the cause of IO's along the area. That's where that science part comes from that I talked about. Got to understand that. And you saw some of that from Diane or the Senate on your area. And it takes a partnership to do that. You cannot do that by yourself. You gotta have the scientists. You gotta have the industry. You gotta have the state agencies. You gotta have the EPA. You gotta have the public. It's got to be a partnership to get this accomplished. Data is your friend. A lot of people are scared of data. I don't know why. But data is your friend. We found them over 30 years. You saw all the data that I showed you up there. We can't make the planning improvements. We cannot plan unless you have the data. Okay. You have to have the data. And the last two points I'll make. One's on the slide. One's on the slide. Use all the tools available to you. Don't get tunnel visioned. There are plenty of tools available to you in order to accomplish this. We saw some of the presentations today of some of those tools. There's modeling. There's monitoring. There's something called exceptional events and international emissions. This part's really interesting because California has done a ton of work on international emissions. And what they're showing is, this is remarkable to me, the California work is showing, and it depends on which study you look at, 10 to 20 parts per billion coming over to the Pacific Ocean from China. Now think about that. There are areas, like San Antonio, and if you're currently at 73 parts per billion which San Antonio is, and if you find out that 10 to 20 parts a billion of that is coming over from across the ocean, and you got nothing you can do about that, you probably want to know about that, you probably want to do the science about that, you probably want to account for that, and you probably want to convince the agencies of that. That's what California is doing. So again, another good example of the kind of work that's ongoing on it. And then the last point, and I mentioned this earlier, it's not on the slide, but I'll say in a capped environment where no emissions grow, and this doesn't matter if you get designated or not designated. If you don't want to grow emissions and you're in a capped environment, the only way to grow is to reduce emissions, and you have to do that smartly, and you have to do that with relationships and partnerships. Otherwise it's not a work. Trust me, I've been doing this for 30 years at least. Okay, thank you very much. Rowey did not disappoint, thank you so much. You're making a trip down here and planning this wonderful presentation during the hurricane. So, I want to point out that the centerpieces are provided by the City of San Antonio and the San Diego League Department, and they are seeds, so take those for parts that are centerpieces. I want to conclude by two things. I want to show you a chart that I was given by the, we need one more chart, right? I asked the City of San Antonio, the San Diego League Department, how do we compare to the Texas markets? If you overlay Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, and Houston, how have you been training against them? We're all competing for talent and businesses that want to move here, and I think it's important that we look where we are. Who's the only one underneath that bar? Very, you can see the different bars all the time, that the black bar right there is the current standard. So, Austin's the only one. So, we are competing with Austin for jobs, talent, and businesses. It's important, it's standard of living. We don't need to just bless people from Austin here. We need to live here, work here, right here, from all over the world, all over the country. So, air quality's important to millennials and change, so we need to be proactive rather than reactive. As we talked about, the pledge. So, the business journal, I tweeted out, we take the pledge. Not one business responded. So, we need, obviously, we don't need to wait for the standards to be put on this. We need to be proactive. The business community needs to be that now, rather than wait until it takes too long to make a difference. When I moved here four years ago, I heard a lot about plastic bags there, and how important that was to the business community. That, you know, when we moved on, the business community, when they're behind something, things happened. Business got behind the lawns. They got behind the bathroom bill. That was a big, recent initiative. We need the business community to get behind this. So, I asked, we could check eight on yours. It's things that we already do. So, if you're a business here, we're gonna get, everyone lives in Selphie with Ron Muir, right? We're gonna, you see them all, they were so convenient. So, we're gonna take a picture of the businesses that take the pledge, huge one box or not. We're gonna do it on stage, and that's the last thing we've got. So, I wanna thank everyone for joining us. If you didn't take a pledge, please be on stage. Thank you. Thank you.