Clean Truck Program wins unanimous approval

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission Thursday voted unanimously in  favor of a landmark Clean Truck Program, which will slash diesel truck  emissions by 80 percent and help reduce air pollution which kills 2,400  Californians each year.
Air pollution has especially affected the  health of African American children.  Research conducted among school  children in urban Los Angeles estimates prevalence rates of probable  asthma at 14 percent.  More than one in four African American school  children in urban Los Angeles have probable asthma, and hospitalization  rates for asthma are three times higher for African American children  than for children of other racial and ethnic groups, according to  statistics provided by the Asthma Coalition of Los Angeles County.
The  vote for the Clean Truck Program is designed to achieve long-term  sustainability, accelerate the replacement of high-polluting trucks with  cleaner trucks, and provide market incentives to encourage private  investment that shifts accountability to licensed trucking companies.
The  program will require trucks operating at the port to be owned and  registered by companies that will be given a five-year permit in order  to access the port.
The concessionaires will employ truck drivers and  be held accountable for ensuring that all trucks meet the requirements  of the Clean Truck Program and ensure that the trucks are licensed and  properly maintained.
In November 2007, Mayor Villaraigosa and the  Harbor Commission set a five-year timetable for the greening of the  16,000 trucks now serving the ports, requiring all trucks to be replaced  or retrofitted to meet 2007 US Environmental Protection Agency diesel  truck emissions standards by 2012.
Today, Los Angeles has said  enough is enough.  When 1,200 lives are cut short every year by toxic  emissions coming from the port, we have a moral mandate to act fast and  effectively, said Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.  Quick fixes are not  enough, and when we say we want to slash air pollution at the Port of  Los Angeles, we mean for the long haul, Villaraigosa said.
Councilwoman  Janice Hahn, whose district includes the port, expressed her elation  for passage of the Clean Truck Program.  The San Pedro Bay Ports are  the single largest contributor of diesel emissions and greenhouse gases  in Southern California, Hahn pointed out.  For too long, it felt as  though the only people paying attention to this public health crisis  were those of us that live in the Harbor area, even though the  statistics clearly show that truck pollution is truly a regional public  health risk problem, not just a local issue.
Hahn said that she  had been concerned about the plight of the independent truck driver for  years. For one, port cargo is carried on the dirtiest trucks in the  region, and driven by the lowest paid truckers, who get no benefits, no  training, and only get paid by the load.  Second, the sheer number of  trucks, over 16,000, that pick up containers regularly, have required us  to look at this problem from a different perspective.
Working  together, we have found a way to not only remove dirty trucks from the  operation, but to also address the terrible working conditions being  faced by our port truckers, said Hahn.  We are finally going to give  these truckers the wages and benefits they deserve.  This is a great  opportunity to create good jobs for people all over Los Angeles so that  more people can benefit from our booming international trade industry.
Gwendolyn  Young, chair of the board of directors for the American Lung  Association of California, applauded Mayor Villaraigosa and the Port of  Los Angeles for unanimously voting for the Clean Truck Program.
The  science is clear: Pollution from trucks makes people sick. In fact,  according to the California Air Resources Board, air pollution from  freight transport kills 2,400 Californians each year with 65 percent of  the toxic diesel pollution emitted from truck tailpipes.
The  American Lung Associations State of the Air 2007 Report gave the Los  Angeles region an F grade, with the dubious distinction of having the  most polluted skies in the country.  However, we give an A grade to the  Ports of Los Angeles for their Clean Truck Program.
The public  health crisis caused by air pollution requires this bold action, said  Young.  In requiring trucking companies to act as employers and assume  responsibility for upgrading and maintaining low-emission trucks, the LA  program will reduce pollution by 80 percent and keep emission levels  down.