Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster appeared this morning on the CNBC talk show “The Squawk Box” to talk alternative energy and air quality, on a special edition of the television show guest-hosted by billionaire energy advocate T. Boone Pickens. Mayor Foster explained the various alternative energy methods that Long Beach has used, from a 20% alternative fuel City vehicle fleet to the use of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in trash trucks and street sweepers.
He also spoke at length about the Clean Trucks Program at the Port, which he says has worked more quickly than expected and that an 80% reduction in greenhouse gasses that was expected to be achieved by 2012 may actually be achieved as early as the end of next year.
“The significance of this is we will clean or reduce the pollution of trucks by 80%,” said Mayor Foster. “Now, we originally thought we would do that by 2012 – we’re likely to do it by the end of 2010.”
In an attempt to verify Mayor Foster’s statement, the lbpost.com contacted Port of Long Beach Director of Communications Art Wong, who explained that the Port believes the goal may be met by the end of this year. However, the figures that Wong and Mayor Foster are discussing are not necessarily air quality statistics, but refer to the number of more efficient trucks being used at the Port – no official air quality reports have yet been made available, so there is yet no way to determine the program’s success rate.
Since the inception of the Clean Trucks Program last October, Wong says that 80% of all trucks at the Port are now newer and more efficient, and that the number is expected to reach 95% by the end of 2009. That’s because on January 1, 2010, all trucks made before the year 1993 will be banned from the Port. These are the numbers being used in Mayor Foster’s statements; not of actual air quality improvements but of theoretical improvements based on the percentage of efficient vehicles being used compared to previous years.
The Clean Trucks Program recently reached its one-year mark of institution, and lbpost.com Keith Higginbotham reflected on its successes and challenges in this column last week.
The CNBC host then asked Pickens whether he considered Long Beach to be a leader in alternative fuel use.
“Long Beach has been a real leader, but they were trying to solve an air quality problem, they weren’t trying to solve an energy security problem,” Pickens replied. “But at the same time, they’re side by side. They’re doing both there, but they were pushed into it by air quality.”
Foster also offered interesting information about the use of tax credits to implement alternative fuel vehicles, and called gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman’s proposal to place a moratorium on state laws that require steeper reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, “A pretty draconian and maybe unnecessary proposal.”
Click here to watch the full seven-minute video on CNBC.com.