Port of Long Beach Executive Director Dick Steinke says that allegations of caving to the trucking industry from environmental groups like the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are “simply false,” in a letter posted to the Port’s website yesterday.
The back-and-forth stems from the Port’s settlement with the American Trucking Association (ATA) last week, ending a long legal battle over the Port’s Clean Trucks Plan. The NRDC almost immediately claimed that the Port had relinquished too much power to monitor and regulate pollution-heavy trucks operating at the harbor, while the ATA responded to the lbpost.com by saying that the NRDC’s claims were not true. Allegations from both the Port and ATA have suggested that the NRDC is fighting not for environmental concerns, but because the Port’s plan allows both truck drivers who are employees of trucking companies as well as independent owner-operators.
Steinke echoes that sentiment in his letter, a portion of which reads:
The NRDC’s real objection to our program has nothing to do with clean air. By aligning itself with the Teamsters, who have been very public about their campaign to unionize port truckers nationwide, the NRDC is pursuing an agenda beyond air quality.
Steinke also goes on to proudly explain that the Clean Trucks Program has met a huge milestone more than one year ahead of schedule, reducing truck pollution by 80%. That number is based on the number of clean trucks that have replaced older, heavy polluting trucks, and not necessarily exact air quality data – an important distinction to make when discussing one of Southern California’s most heavily polluted regions. Also noteworthy are recent figures provided by the Port that suggest trucks compromise between 10-12% of pollution, meaning the rest comes from other sources.
Still, the feat of replacing 80% of old, heavy polluters with cleaner trucks is a victory for the Clean Trucks Program. No definitive air quality data has been produced to show the effects of the program since it began in October of 2008, but the environmental benefits of using cleaner trucks at the Port are likely to pay off soon, and – more importantly – for good.