SoCal ports? truck plan supporters want ports to stay the course

SoCal portsÆ truck plan supporters want ports to stay the course Two environmental organizations joined the growing fray Tuesday over the Southern California ports' controversial trucking re-regulation plan.
   In a joint letter to Los Angeles and Long Beach port officials, the National Resources Defense Council and the Coalition for Clean Air suggest that the port directors ignore opposition to the plan by the transportation industry and 'stand firm on their path.'
   The plan, announced by the ports in April and scheduled to take effect at the start of 2008, seeks over the next five years to replace or retrofit more than 16,000 drayage trucks that service the ports daily with newer models that run up to 80 percent cleaner than older models. The plan will also force independent drivers to become employees of port-licensed truck companies. Drivers not employed with these port-licensed truck companies will be banned from the ports under the plan. Fees charged to enter terminals as well as port monies will be used to pay for a little more than half of the plan's estimated cost. The ports are seeking state bond money to cover the rest. (See California Connection analysis at www.americanshipper.com/cc .)
   Heavily supported by the Teamsters union, the ports' $1.8 billion plan seeks to essentially re-regulate the local port trucking industry. While universally supportive of the emissions control aspects, the transportation industry has opposed the labor and financing components of the plan. The California Trucking Association, the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, the National Industrial Transportation League and others have sent letters to the ports' expressing opposition to the plan.
   The NRDC and CCA letter said that relying on state standards in the works to address diesel truck emissions, and set to take effect within months of the ports' plan start date of Jan. 1, will not allow the ports to meet their five-year goal.
   'It is imperative,' said the letter, 'that the ports live up to their promise to reduce impacts on residents adjacent to the ports and along the trade corridors where these trucks travel.
   The letter, signed by an NRDC attorney, also warned the port directors that 'environmental groups and community groups have long advocated for the ports to clean up their operations' and that 'missing the targeted reductions is not an option for the ports.'
      In a Tuesday press release circulating the NRDC-CCA letter, the Teamsters-led Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports described the letter as a 'key backing' of the ports' plan. The CCSP — of which the NRDC and CCA are members — already came out in support of the ports' plan in April.
   To show their continued support for the ports' plan, the CCSP is planning a rally today of what they describe as 'more than 100 trucks' along an area freeway. The rush-hour rally, according to the CCSP, intends to tie up commuter traffic along a 25-mile stretch of the Harbor (Interstate 110) Freeway on their way to a demonstration at the Port of Long Beach headquarters.