Clean Air Progress Reveals Untruth of Claims by Ports, Unions, Environmental Groups

Environmental benefits of Clean Trucks Programs in southern California ports are ahead of schedule, writes Bill Mongelluzzo in his June 9 article in the Journal of Commerce.

The goal of reducing truck pollution in the harbor by 80 percent in 5 years may be reached by year's end, said Marcel Van Dijk, marketing manager at the Port of Los Angeles.

The environmental progress comes without concession requirements once attached to the Clean Trucks Programs at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. In April of 2009, a federal court ordered concession requirements enjoined from the Clean Trucks Programs at the two ports after finding the requirements illegally regulate commerce and are unrelated to the environment.

The American Trucking Associations sued over the concession plans but supports the environmental clean up through the retirement of older diesel trucks. Unions, political allies and environmental groups argued that concession requirements, most notably one that banned independent owner operators from Los Angeles, were necessary to achieve environmental benefits. The owner-operator ban was specifically drafted to make it easier to unionize port truck drivers.

The Port of Los Angeles announcement reveals just how wrong the unions, politicians and environmental groups are. Labor-environmental coalition groups continue to call for the ban of small independent truck owner-operators from hauling freight at ports around the nation.

These groups have proposed Clean Trucks Programs that include illegal concessions requirements banning owner-operator truck drivers at the Ports of Oakland and at New York and New Jersey. There is even talk of asking Congress for a legislative exemption to legalize the ban within 50 miles of ports.

As John R. McLaurin, President of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, said in his article on the subject at foxandhoundsdaily.com, "If this were solely about clean air we would be having a far different debate."