Container fee bill finds new life

Container fee bill finds new life A California state legislator's bid to assess a $30-per-TEU fee on all containers transiting through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach may be back after all, according to a report from Southern California maritime newsletter The Cunningham Report.
   State Sen. Alan Lowenthal's Senate Bill 760 stalled in the California legislature this week, but the report said that Lowenthal is now seeking to add language to another of his bills, SB 927, that will likely make it to a vote.
   'SB 927 mandates that the 'circulation element' of local government general plans be renamed the 'transportation element,' ' the Cunningham Report story said. 'That bill has been amended to replace the general plan language with new language that calls for the $30-per-TEU container fees. Although the intent of the bill is the same as SB 760, the actual wording has been changed somewhat. One of the reported changes is that under SB 927, ports would be responsible for collecting the fee from cargo owners, not terminal operators.'
   SB 760 would have charged $30 per TEU and dispersed it to environmental, port security and inland infrastructure projects. The amended SB 927 was to be debated on the Assembly floor Thursday and today, and could pass to the state Senate next week.