The Press-Telegram today posts an editorial about a recent milestone for the Port of Long Beach’s Clean Trucks Program, which earlier this week began banning trucks built before 1993 from operating at the facility in an effort to keep heavily-polluting trucks out. The editorial mistakenly says that all pre-2003 trucks are banned.
The editorial makes the case that this week’s move to ban trucks from the Port was an easily overlooked gesture that will go a long way toward cleaning up our air, and even takes a shot at some who are opposing the plan:
The Teamsters have aligned themselves with environmental groups and are trying to sell their scheme as a program to clean up port pollution. But that, as at least one independent operator has said, was a deal with the devil. Long Beach has proved the point by getting the job done without excluding the independents.
That’s a thinly-veiled jab thrown in the direction of the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has been trying to reverse a Port lawsuit settlement with the American Trucking Association (ATA) that groups like the NRDC claim relinquished too much enforcement power. The NRDC most recently filed a new lawsuit against the settlement earlier this week.
Rumors around the shipping industry have been that the NRDC is partnering with the Teamsters Union – which opposes Long Beach’s plan because it allows independent operators to work at the Port and does not force them to unionize – and does not have environmental interests at heart with their lawsuits; the Press-Telegram seems to believe that this is true.
Change is afoot at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Stay tuned as we’re only beginning to scratch the surface as decisions made these next few years in the areas of pollution, unionization, development and more will likely shape the future of the ports for the forseeable future.