The Road To Clean aiR - LA Differentiated

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The Clean Trucks Program:
victory and opposition
In October the Coalition for Clean Air (CCA)
and our partners celebrated the one-year
anniversary of the adoption of the Clean Trucks
Program by the Ports of Los Angeles and Long
Beach. Since the program’s rollout, thousands
of the dirtiest diesel trucks have been taken out
of service and replaced by cleaner counterparts.
The emissions reduced in the first year alone were
equivalent to the amount produced by 200,000
automobiles on Southern California’s highways.
This success has not come without litigious
opposition from the American Trucking
Associations, and in April, the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals issued a preliminary injunction
against portions of the Clean Trucks Program.
One enjoined element is central to the
sustainability of a program to clean up port trucks:
a Port of Los Angeles requirement that trucking
firms employ their drivers. This provision is
widely supported by CCA and a broad coalition of
environmental organizations because companies,
not low-wage drivers, should be responsible for the
ongoing maintenance and turnover of a clean fleet.
Clean air coming to
port-adjacent schools
With the help of our partners at Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) and other community
groups, we achieved an important agreement to
help protect the health of children, teachers and
school employees working and studying in close
proximity to the Port of Los Angeles. Two years
in the making, this agreement launches a program
to install state-of-the-art air filtration systems in
schools located near the port.
Children are among the most vulnerable to the
dangers of air pollution. Childhood asthma rates
in communities adjacent to the Ports of Los
Angeles and Long Beach are staggering at 21.9%,
compared to 15.6% for the Los Angeles region
and 14.2% nationally.
With $6 million provided from a settlement over
a port expansion project known as TraPac, the
South Coast Air Quality Management District
will administer a comprehensive five-year school
air filtration program for the harbor area. While
air filters in schools are not the answer to our air
pollution problem, they offer a proven way to
dramatically improve indoor air quality.
“
Our port
communities,
particularly our
children, have suffered
far too long from the
negative effects of port
pollution. We know that
there are [more than 1
million] school absences statewide each
year due to cargo-related pollution.
Hopefully, this air filtration program
in schools will help keep our children
healthier. This is exactly the type of
project the community benefits money
was intended for. ”
— Los Angeles Councilwoman
Janice Hahn
CCA is aiding the defense of the Clean Trucks
Program in federal court. Simultaneously, we
are working with federal legislators to protect
this program and ensure the ability of ports
across the country to adopt similar long-term
clean air strategies.
CCA Interim Executive Director Martin Schlageter
speaks alongside Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa (left) and Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster
(right) at a press conference for clean trucks at the Port
of Los Angeles Photo. by Emilio Flores/La Opinión.
Coalition for Clean Air
12
2009 Annual Report