L.A. port blasts ATA’s truck program position

L.A. port blasts ATAÆs truck program position    Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Geraldine Knatz took a swipe at the American Trucking Associations on Friday, characterizing the industry group's position on the port's Clean Truck program as shortsighted.
   The ATA has successfully sued to stop the port from directly banning trucking companies for not replacing older trucks with ones that have cleaner burning diesel engines and requiring all truckers doing business at the port to be employee drivers rather than independent operators. A pending suit seeks to overturn the port's concession agreement that controls which companies have access to the port based on their environmental, safety and security records.
   In an open letter on the port's Web site, Knatz mocked the ATA for stating further changes to truck operations aren't required because voluntary industry conversion to 2007 model year trucks, with the help of government subsidies, has helped reduce truck emissions by 70 percent in the past year.

Knatz

   'The Port of Los Angeles' Clean Truck Program wasn't designed to be a quick win and a one-shot deal, but rather a long-term solution for ensuring that our port trucking system will be environmentally clean, financially self-reliant and continually upgraded,' she wrote.
   'Our concession program,' she added, 'was not set up to replace the present fleet of port trucks and say 'mission accomplished!' We didn't set out to clear the air for one point in time. Our challenge — and what the ATA fails to acknowledge — is that emissions standards are a moving target. If that wasn't the case, perhaps we could wipe our hands, say 'we're done' and move on. But we know that even today's cleanest trucks will not pass 2020 environmental standards, when mandatory caps will push greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels. Even the next generation of trucks will fall short of those 2020 clean air standards.'
   Knatz said enforceable access agreements are required to make sure trucking companies continue to upgrade their fleets in the future after the initial round of subsidies ends.