Okay, I could have gone ahead and called this “Port-pourri,” but that’s too precious even for me! <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n A selection of port-related items today:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n Last week I was privileged to be able to attend the world premiere of a new National Geographic special called “America’s Port.” <\/span>The 8-episode series, made by the folks who brought us “Ice Road Truckers,” paints a dramatic picture of operations here in the San Pedro Bay that feed goods to the rest of the nation. <\/span>The show is focused almost entirely on Los Angeles, though there are mentions of the Long Beach port. <\/span>We at the premiere were treated to about 70 minutes of footage from the first and second installments, which dealt with topics including port security, environmental impacts, and the situation of port truckers.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n The best thing about the show, from my perspective, is that it will inform viewers across the country how incredibly important our ports are to the national economy. <\/span>Amazingly, this point continues to be lost on many Washington lawmakers, and as a result Southern California gets consistently shortchanged when it comes to getting federal transportation funds. <\/span>I hope this show will be an important lever to help change that situation. <\/span>“America’s Port” begins airing April 6 on the National Geographic Channel. <\/span>Here’s a link to the producer’s blog<\/font><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n Last Wednesday the Propeller Club of LA-Long Beach<\/font><\/a> hosted a luncheon Q&A session featuring the Presidents of the Long Beach and Los Angeles Harbor Commissions: <\/span>Mario Cordero of Long Beach and David Freeman of Los Angeles. <\/span>Given last week’s events, when the two ports definitively parted ways over the details of their Clean Truck Programs, the sizable audience was expecting (okay, I was expecting) to see some public fireworks. <\/span>However, the two Commissioners kept the discourse very civil, though it was clear that their opinions differ on which approach will best serve the industry and community. <\/span>Commissioner Freeman was dismissive about the threat of legal action, and Commissioner Cordero sanguine. <\/span>Both also took pains to emphasize the many ways in which the ports agree, which does indeed cover the majority of Clean Air Action Plan<\/font><\/a> territory. <\/span>Indeed, on Monday the two ports jointly adopted another important element of the plan: <\/span>a new incentive for ocean-going vessels<\/font><\/a> – one of the biggest sources of port pollution – to use low-sulfur fuel.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n Backing up to last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to hear Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer speak to a business group in Los Angeles. <\/span>What does he have to do with ports and Long Beach? <\/span>Rep. Blumenauer is one of the few members of Congress to understand and speak up about our nation’s pressing need to re-invest in our infrastructure – for moving goods and people as well as water, power, and sewage. <\/span>Much of our transportation infrastructure dates back to the 1950’s, when the interstate system was built under the leadership of President Eisenhower, and much of our other infrastructure dates back farther than that. <\/span>Rep. Blumenauer called for an infrastructure summit involving the Presidential candidates about a month before the November election. <\/span>He also suggested that environmental concerns be addressed by requiring that infrastructure investments meet performance criteria – that they be not only efficient but clean and non-polluting. <\/span>This could help ensure our public and private money delivers products everyone can benefit from.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6091"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=6091"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}