Clean Trucks at California Ports Survive Court Ruling

In the lawsuit filed by the American Trucking Associations seeking a preliminary injunction against other parts of the two similar programs, the three judge panel reversed and sent back for further consideration the District Court's earlier ruling that refused to grant the injunction.

American Trucking Associations, a nonprofit industry association, had not challenged those parts of the ports' Clean Truck Programs that ban older trucks and use a container fee to subsidize the purchase of newer, less polluting trucks.

"Our Clean Truck Program is reducing toxic port truck pollution at an accelerated pace, and today's ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals does not challenge the truck ban schedule or truck fees that are helping us successfully battle this health crisis," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

"We are committed to fighting this case because our Clean Truck Program is the most sustainable plan for ensuring a clean, safe and secure trucking system for the long-haul at the Port of Los Angeles," the mayor said.

The Clean Truck Program is a comprehensive environmental, safety and security initiative. On its October 1, 2008, launch date, the program immediately banned trucks built before 1989 from hauling cargo in and out of cargo terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Through its Clean Truck Incentive program, the Port of Los Angeles is moving full speed ahead in helping trucking companies put into service model-year 2007 or newer U.S. EPA-compliant "clean trucks," the mayor said.

At the Port of Los Angeles a container is lowered onto a waiting truck. (Photo courtesy Port of Los Angeles)

The Port of Los Angeles is paying out $44 million in $20,000-per-truck incentives for trucks enrolled in the program and put into service by January 15, 2009.

This incentive was a catalyst in the deployment of some 3,500 clean trucks now serving the port complex – a clean truck fleet exceeding the Clean Truck Program's first year emissions reduction goals.

The clean trucks now in service at the port complex provide a reduction of at least 25 tons of diesel particulate matter per year, or the equivalent of a 92 percent reduction of diesel particulate matter emissions in comparison to the averaged emissions of 3,500 trucks measured during the 2006 baseline year of analysis.

By 2012, the ports will ban all trucks that do not meet 2007 U.S. EPA emission standards. The combined Clean Truck initiatives at the nation's two largest container ports will reduce port related truck emissions by more than 80 percent.

The ATA had sought to enjoin those parts of the Clean Truck Programs the truckers believe are preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act because they improperly attempted to regulate the "price, route, or service of any motor carrier."

"In short, motor carriers should not be required to adhere to the various unconstitutional provisions in the Ports' [concession] agreements, and are likely to suffer irrevocably if forced to do that or give up their businesses," the court said in its unanimous opinion.

"We are extremely pleased with the decision," says Robert Digges Jr., ATA vice president and chief counsel. "The Judges understood that most of the elements of the Plans are not about safety, but rather are a regulatory effort by the Ports to create what they believe would be a more efficient drayage system."

The Court of Appeal's instructions to the District Court make clear that many elements of the Concession Plans in the Clean Truck Programs must be enjoined, but leaves it to the District Court as to whether the plans should be halted in whole or in part.

If the District Court now grants an injunction against the Clean Truck Programs in their entirety, the environmental sections of the plans too would be halted.

Three environmental groups - the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the Coalition for Clean Air - intervened on behalf of the ports. They say the fight to clean up air pollution around the ports is far from over.

"This decision today places in jeopardy the clean air goals at the ports, as well as every port infrastructure expansion project that relies on clean trucks," said David Pettit, senior attorney and director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Southern California Clean Air Program. "We're going to vigorously fight to protect these truck plans in court."

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are contiguous and effectively form a single port on San Pedro Bay bisected by the Los Angeles-Long Beach city boundary. The Port of Los Angeles handles more containerized cargo than any other domestic port and the two ports combined handle over 40 percent of the containerized goods in U.S. foreign commerce.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2009. All rights reserved.