The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is offering people cash for their old, smoggy cars.

The Air District’s Vehicle Buy Back Program will give people $1,500 starting in July for turning over vehicles made in 1998 or before.

“The Vehicle Buy Back Program gives residents an incentive to scrap older, more polluting vehicles to help improve regional air quality and reduce climate-warming emissions,” air district executive officer Philip Fine said in a statement.

To qualify, vehicles must be from 1998 or before, currently registered as operable in the Bay Area for the past 24 months and drivable.

Also, vehicles that need a smog check within two months must take and pass one, according to BAAQMD officials.

The program has taken 95,000 cars, vans, pickup trucks and SUVs off the road since 1996.

More information about the buy back program can be found on the district’s website.

California has a similar program through the Bureau of Automotive Repair for people with vehicles that can’t pass a smog check.

Kiley Russell writes primarily for Local News Matters on issues related to equity and the environment. A Bay Area native, he has lived most of his life in Oakland. He studied journalism at San Francisco State University, worked for the Associated Press and the former Contra Costa Times, among other outlets. He has covered everything from state legislatures, local governments, federal and state courts, crime, growth and development, political campaigns of various stripes, wildfires and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.