Baton Rouge’s carbon footprint might look a lot different in the next three decades.
The Capital Region Planning Commission is developing a comprehensive climate action plan, Vision Green 2050, to reduce climate pollution in the Baton Rouge area.
The plan is federally funded by a $1 million Climate Pollution Reduction Grant as part of President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The grant is disbursed over three years and the Capital Region Planning Commission was notified of the grant approval in 2023. The contractual agreement between CRPC and EPA Region 6 was signed in 2024. This year, the planning commission has begun community outreach to identify how to provide solutions to those being affected by carbon emissions.
“The ultimate goal is to provide maximum benefit to the underserved population,” says Sooraz Patro, director of transportation planning at CRPC. “Those are our targeted outreach people. We need to go from the grassroots level and they are the ones who face the brunt of the emissions and pollution.”
After outreach, the planning commission plans to complete the plan document by June 2025.
Patro says the planning commission wants to prioritize areas where there can be a mass reduction in emissions such as industrial plants. The plan will also suggest solutions on how to reduce carbon emissions from transportation such as park-and-rides, vanpools and microtransit.
“Most of the younger generation doesn’t want to stay in the state and the best way to change that is to improve the quality of life through improved safety and air quality,” Patro says. “That’s the only way we can keep our kids in the state.”
Take Our Poll
