SoCal ports offer plan to cut diesel truck pollution by 80%
Beginning next year, all 16,000 short-haul trucks that move goods from the wharves would be replaced or retrofitted, and their drivers would be employed by trucking companies required to bid annually on contracts that include environmental and labor requirements. The plan would be funded largely by per-trip fees assessed on the trucking companies.
S. David Freeman, president of the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners, said today that consumers would pay pennies more on the price of goods moving off the docks. He said replacing the trucks, at an estimated total cost of about $1.8 billion, is vital to improving public health in neighborhoods surrounding the booming ports.
“If you just look at the difference between the emissions of one of these dirty trucks and a new, cleaner one, and do the math, this is one of our biggest opportunities to get clean air,” said Freeman, who along with other port officials and staff unveiled the proposal Thursday at a closed-door meeting with industry, labor and environmental groups. “We can make major advances by replacing them,” he said.
Environmental, labor and community groups who fought for the plan for more than a year as a unique “blue-green” coalition were overjoyed.
“Usually governments just nibble around the edges of a major social problem,” Barry Broad, state director for the Teamsters, said after Thursday’s meeting. “This is an example of not one but two governments coming together … to solve a problem in a truly comprehensive way.”
Retail industry representatives expressed doubts, saying the plan, the first of its kind in the U.S., could drive up costs of consumer goods.
A loose coalition of retail groups, including the National Retail Federation, had strenuously argued for a market-driven solution and new statewide emissions standards for trucks. The groups argued that trade corridors could collect fees and that money would be quickly raised to improve the condition of the port truck fleets.
Today, the federation reiterated those concerns, arguing that there should be “serious concerns” about the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach losing business.
“We don’t think that a private local standard is the way to proceed,” said Erik Autor, vice president and international trade counsel for the federation. “And we are not sure how the state and federal governments are going to view this.”
Shippers, who could foot the bill for the multibillion-dollar plan that would go into effect Jan. 1, say it could end up being challenged in court.
Freeman, though, insisted the plan would withstand legal challenges. “Let me just put it this way: We’ve hired the best legal talents in the country on this subject, and we’re confident the basic approach we have is legal and will withstand any litigation, although we certainly are not encouraging it,” he said.
Freeman said it was consumers who would end up paying “a penny more on a pair of tennis shoes, or maybe a nickel or more to buy a TV…. The fundamental thing about this is if you buy a pair of tennis shoes, that cost is going to reflect the total price of the journey, including the cost of cleaner trucks.”
janet.wilson@latimes.com
ronald.white@latimes.com
