Contact Information: Rupal Patel
Date:  19 February 2008
Location:  Long Beach, California

Testimony of Rupal Patel, Communities for Clean Ports On the Port of Long Beach Clean Truck Program
Presented to the Port of Long Beach Harbor Commission

Good afternoon, my name is Rupal Patel, of Communities for Clean Ports.

First, I want to commend this Harbor Commission. The Clean Air Action Plan you passed in 2006 was a significant document. And we have all heard you say that you are committed to ending the long history of the people of Long Beach and California having to sacrifice their health and billions of dollars each year in order to foot the bill for the deadly pollution generated by the profitable goods movement industry.

Recently, you’ve spent a couple hours hearing debate over what constitutes a “clean” truck. On the one hand, you heard this Port’s staff defend deploying more diesel-fueled trucks that are a major reason Long Beach has cancer-risk rates more than 1,000 times federal clean air standards, according to the latest data from the South Coast Air Quality Management District. And you’ve heard them argue that a Best Available Control Technology standard is unworkable – despite the fact that numerous others have used BACT for decades. On the other hand, you’ve heard AQMD and environmental and community groups argue that the “Clean Trucks Program” should deploy the cleanest available (or BACT) trucks – starting with the CARB-certified alternative-fueled trucks that would dramatically reduce smog-forming NOx, deadly diesel Particulate Matter and greenhouse gases...if only the Ports would commit to putting them into service.

So I commend the Long Beach Staff Proposal for at least recognizing that alt-fuel trucks are cleaner than diesel. And it appears that someone at least intended to use the Program – the subsidies plus the container fee exemptions – to incentivize alt-fuel trucks.

But the “diesel loopholes” in the Staff Proposal are large enough to drive thousands of dirtier diesel trucks through – and large enough to pretty much ensure the cleanest trucks are never deployed.

Most glaringly, one loophole exempts all diesel trucks purchased between now and October 1st from ever paying the container fee or from scrapping an old dirty truck – all but urging trucking companies to choose diesel trucks. Similarly, the proposed financing program does not consistently incentivize the cleanest trucks.

These diesel loopholes are especially important because the Staff Proposal refuses to set an enforceable goal of ensuring that at least half the new fleet are alternative-fueled trucks, as outlined in the CAAP in 2006. Instead, it asserts that goal, before immediately offering excuses for why Long Beach will fall short. And then proceeds to describe a Program that almost ensures failure.

Just as importantly, the Staff Proposal does not even attempt to fix the goods movement industry’s broken drayage system. Simply put, the clean air goals in the CAAP will not be met without a strong, sustainable system that internalizes the full costs of the industry’s pollution problem. The concessionaire model with an employee workforce is necessary to achieving the air quality and public health improvements that communities need. Without the new model previously proposed in the Program, taxpayers and the Ports will soon, once again, be faced with spending another several billion dollars to replace another fleet of by-then old and dirty trucks.

We urge you to direct staff to make the necessary changes to bring about long-term clean air solutions, and work with the Port of Los Angeles to continue developing this Program. Thank you for your time, and in advance, for your leadership.

Click here for a PDF of CCP's testimony.