Signaling a new push for cleaner air and safer roads, the California Senate today passed SB 974, Senator Alan Lowenthal’s bill to help to help clean up the ports and improve rail infrastructure. The vote was 22-12.
The bill, would authorize a $30 per container fee to help reduce the toxic pollution caused by the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland and also would provide much needed funding for infrastructure near and at those ports. The $30 container fee, would raise an estimated $528 million annually
“Thirty dollars per container is a very small price to pay in order to clean up our deadly air and speed the movement of goods. It is high time that major retailers and business interests in this country realize that the public will not tolerate growth without reductions in air pollution,” said Lowenthal.
The California Air Resources Board estimates 2,400 deaths a year are directly attributed to diesel pollution emanating from the ports. That is in addition to the $200 billion in additional health care costs that CARB attributes to goods movement over the next 15 years.
A 2005 report by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation stated Southern California must spend at least $10.5 billion to improve railroads, rail yards and highways to keep up with surging international trade or risk losing more than 500,000 new jobs and more than $1 billion in taxes a year.
“We are facing a public health crisis and this bill will provide the resources necessary to reduce port pollution and allow our ports to continue to provide jobs throughout the state, said Lowenthal. California will not be the tailpipe of the nation, this is about fairness and the industry should pay their fair share,” he said.