One of America’s busiest ports
expects to eliminate 80 percent
of its truck-related air pollution
within five years by replacing
nearly 17,000 vehicles hauling
cargo at the site.
The Port of Long Beach in California expects the program to
cost about $2.2 billion. Much of
the cost will be covered by a new
$35 fee for containers filled with
goods passing through the site.
One port official called the pollution production program massive and unprecedented.
The plan is to replace older,
dirtier diesel trucks with vehicles powered by clean diesel or
alternative fuel such as liquefied
natural gas.
The port will offer one-time financial assistance to truck operators in an effort to push them
toward new equipment, including a lease-to-own program or
grants for the purchase of new
vehicles. There also will be
grants available to retrofit older
vehicles with air pollution control equipment.
In October the port, which
handled 7. 3 million containers
last year, will ban all trucks
made before 1989. All trucks
made before 1994 will be banned
starting Jan. 1, 2010, as will all
pre-2004 vehicles that have not
MICHAEL T WEED / ZUMA PRESS
IM-PORT-ANT PROGRAM: Port of Long Beach officials say the scope of the port’s $2.2 billion plan to decrease truck-related air pollution is unprecedented. Above, shipping containers are offloaded from ships at the port.
been upgraded with up-to-date
pollution control equipment.
All trucks not meeting the 2007
federal clean truck standards will
not be allowed to operate at the
port starting Jan. 1, 2012.
“When that goal is achieved, we
will reduce pollution over 80 percent from that emissions source,”
said Robert Kanter, managing director of environmental affairs
and planning for the port.
Container fees will generate
an estimated $1.6 billion to help
replace 16,800 trucks by 2012.
The other $600 million will come
from state and local funding.
Not all containers will have to
pay the special fee, however.
Cargo owners using clean trucks
in service by Oct. 1 that meet
2007 federal emission standards
will receive a complete exemption. The vehicles also must not
have been funded through the
port’s Clean Truck Program.
Cargo owners only have to pay
half of the fee if merchandise is
handled by clean diesel vehicles
put in place after Oct. 1 and not
funded through the port’s program.
The container fee reductions
require proof that “an existing
dirty work in port drayage has
been scrapped,” according to the
port.
“It’s important to understand
that the program as developed to
provide one-time assistance to
the port truck drayage industry
to facilitate two things. One was
the priority of cleaning up the air
as quickly as possible without
disrupting the flow of cargo,”
said Steve Rubin, managing director of finance and support
services for the port.
“Second, we were looking for a
program that could cost-effectively reduce emissions over a
relatively rapid period of time by
replacing the 16,800 trucks that
visit the port on a frequent or
semifrequent basis,” he said.
“We were cognizant of the industry that exists today, which
consists of owner-operators and
licensed motor carriers that will
require a significant subsidy in
order to make the transition to
cleaner-fueled vehicles,” Rubin
said.
Funding through the port will
provide up to 80 percent of the
cost of a new truck.
The Port of Long Beach covers
an area of about 3,200 acres and
handled cargo worth $140 billion
last year. The site handles 13
percent of all containers moving
through ports in the United
States.
“It’s massive in its undertaking [and] unprecedented in its
scope,” Rubin said of the truck
program. ■
Contact Waste News senior reporter Jim
Johnson at (937) 964-1289 or jpjohnson@
crain.com
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