State Senator Dean Florez represents a large swath of California\u2019s Central Valley and chairs the Senate Select Committee on Air Quality. This week he brought his Committee to the Port of Los Angeles to get an update on how the state\u2019s major ports, Long Beach included, are progressing in their efforts to reduce emissions. Our local Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal was also in attendance.<\/p>\n
During the relatively brief hearing \u2013 three hours is not a great deal of time to devote to such complex issues, and it\u2019s positively the blink of an eye compared to many a meeting I\u2019ve been to on this subject \u2013 the Committee heard from local and state air quality regulators; community and environmental groups; technology providers; and the ports themselves. Whether speakers felt that air quality progress was more on the slow side or the steady side depended, I think, on which group they represented.<\/p>\n
The question framing the hearing was \u201cWhat Are Ports Doing to Protect the Health of the Surrounding Communities?\u201d Environmental and community groups readily answered the Senator\u2019s questions about the impact of so much goods movement, describing a \u201cslow-acting disaster\u201d that has resulted in untold cases of asthma, cancer, and heart disease in local neighborhoods and schools. While agreeing that some progress has been made, these speakers called for more extensive surveys of actual public health impacts. They asked that the goods movement industry contribute to the cost of reducing emissions and observed that cleanup efforts can create much-needed jobs.<\/p>\n
Technology providers were also impatient with the pace of change. A representative of ACTI, which makes the \u201cbonnet<\/a>\u201d that controls emissions from ships\u2019 engines while idling, observed that there is \u201cgeneral trepidation\u201d about adopting any new technology. There was some discussion of the relative merits of the bonnet and its leading competitor, shoreside plug-in power for docked vessels (though no one was there to represent that technological option). Everyone agreed that international regulation of vessel emissions is not moving quickly enough. A provider of magnetic levitation (maglev) trains that could be used to carry freight reiterated his readiness to mount a demonstration of the technology. For several months the San Pedro Bay ports and Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority have been going through a detailed evaluation<\/a> of several similar advanced-technology proposals, and more information is expected soon.<\/p>\n