Port of N.Y.-N.J. to ban pre-?94 trucks

Port of N.Y.-N.J. to ban pre-Æ94 trucks    The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Wednesday that starting next year it will ban from its terminals trucks built before 1994, and that truck drivers may begin to apply for grants and financial assistance to replace older, more polluting trucks.
   The agency will provide $28 million designed to encourage the owners of up to 636 pre-1994 drayage trucks that regularly serve the port to purchase newer rigs. The program is partly funded with $7 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
   The program, parts of which were first announced last July, sparked comment from forces that have been battling over similar programs on the West Coast.
   The most controversial part of any West Coast program was a concession in the Port of Los Angeles that prevents independent owner-operators from being draymen at the port.
   That provision and others sparked a lawsuit from the American Trucking Association (ATA), which Wednesday issued a press release praising the New York-New Jersey plan for focusing “on reducing truck pollution through retirement of older diesel engines and not on unrelated and unnecessary requirements or banning owner-operator truck drivers from hauling freight at the port.”
   They were joined by the Retail Industry Leaders Association in applauding the port authority's plan.
   RILA and the ATA, however are among the groups that have opposed attempts to modify a federal law to that ports would have a freer hand in regulating trucks.
   The Port of New York and New Jersey is on the other side of that issue, one of the agencies seeking modification of a law called the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act so that state and local entities can regulate trucking companies not only for “vehicle safety,” but also for “environmental” and “congestion” programs.
   Amy Goldsmith, chair of the Coalition for Healthy Ports and executive director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation, said her groups welcomed “the initial step the port authority is taking to reduce truck emissions, but it will take far greater strides to achieve and sustain clean air.”
   “Clearly, the only thing aggressive about this environmental measure is that it places a severe economic burden on port truck drivers who average $10-$11 an hour and lack a safety net, rather than the giant shipping companies and trucking outfits that profit from goods movement.”
   Fred Potter, Teamsters Port Division director, said the truck ban was a “first step” towards cleaning air in adjacent communities, but “the port must address the fundamental economic issues that caused the port trucking pollution crisis. 'Congress must give the ports the ability to fully address these issues.”
   The Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act has been on hold over an unrelated issue — a provision that would make it easier for certain FedEx employees to form unions.
   But Wednesday, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., lifted a hold on the bill, and his colleague, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., was also “in the thick of negotiations that would permit the FAA bill to move forward,” according to an article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal.
   But the paper quoted a spokesman for Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., the House Transportation Committee chairman, as saying he was “not going to give up on this easily” on removing language to which FedEx objects.
   The paper said Corker may have changed his mind because of lobbying by the families of victims of a planes crash near Buffalo, N.Y., who want higher safety standards for regional airlines.