In addition to smog reduction measures, the ports’ Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) update aims to help California meet aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals and achieve zero emissions for trucks and terminal equipment over the next two decades.
The port of Long Beach and Los Angeles have just approved a document that the ports say accelerates them toward a zero-emission future, while at the same time maintaining their competitive position in the global economy.
An overhaul of the San Pedro Bay ports’ Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) that provides a new set of strategies for the harbor complex to reduce air pollution from all port-related sources was approved by the governing boards of both ports Nov. 2.
In addition to smog reduction measures, the CAAP update aims to help California meet aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals, as well as achieve zero emissions for trucks and terminal equipment within the next two decades.
It was unanimously approved during a joint meeting of the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbor boards that was held at the Crowne Plaza Los Angeles Harbor Hotel.
The newly-approved document provides guidance for what the ports say is accelerating the harbors toward a zero-emission future while at the same time protecting and strengthening their competitive position in the global economy.
“This update to the Clean Air Action Plan is an important step toward our ambitious goal of zero-emissions landside goods movement by 2035,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said. “I look forward to making even more progress with our partners in the months and years to come.”
The approval action sets in motion the process for developing and refining specific programs. The strategies include:
• Developing a universal truck reservation system, staging yards, intelligent transportation systems and other efficiency programs to reduce emissions while improving the flow of cargo.
• Expanding the use of on-dock rail, with the goal of eventually moving half of all cargo leaving the ports by rail.
• Developing infrastructure plans to support terminal equipment electrification and alternative fuels, as well as other energy resource goals.
• Transitioning all terminal equipment to zero emissions by 2030, starting with requiring terminal operators to deploy zero-emission equipment or the cleanest equipment available when procuring new cargo-handling equipment, beginning in 2020.
• Creating a rate structure and incentives that encourage faster turnover to near-zero and zero-emission trucks, with the goal of transitioning to a zero-emission on-road drayage fleet by 2035.
Detailed implementation programs, as they are developed, are to be brought to each port’s harbor commission for approval.
The document also calls for the ports to reduce GHGs 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. The targets add to the ports’ existing goals for reducing diesel particulate matter (DPM), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur oxides (SOx).
“These new policies and strategies are some of the most progressive air quality rules in the nation,” Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said.
By 2023, the ports aim to cut emissions of DPM 77 percent, NOx 59 percent, and SOx 93 percent below 2005 levels, all without reducing cargo throughput.
LA and Long Beach are the two largest seaports in North America. Combined, the two handle about 40 percent of the total containerized import traffic in the United States, and 25 percent of the country’s total exports.
The 2017 CAAP, which is the second plan update since the original CAAP’s ratification by the ports in 2006, identifies four categories of coordinated strategies: clean vehicles, equipment technology and fuels; infrastructure investment and planning; operational efficiency throughout the supply chain; and energy resource planning.
In addition to incorporating regional, state and federal standards and regulations, the 2017 CAAP integrates joint zero-emission initiatives announced by the mayors of Long Beach and Los Angeles in June that include new investments in clean technology, expanded use of alternatives for reducing at-berth ship emissions, and a demonstration of up to 100 zero-emission trucks in the next few years.
The new strategies were developed with more than two years of dialogue with industry, environmental groups, regulatory agencies, area residents, equipment and fuel vendors, technology developers and others. The CAAP update document also creates an implementation stakeholder advisory group made up of public and private experts, to provide input on implementing new strategies.
The estimated cost of implementing the 2017 CAAP ranges from $7 billion to $14 billion, according to the ports, with the funding coming from various sources, including grants and user fees.