2,000 diesel trucks built before 1989 banned at L.A., Long Beach ports
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach formally launched a $1.6 billion initiative on Wednesday aimed at reducing diesel truck emissions by 80 percent within five years.
The first phase of the Clean Trucks Program immediately bans about 2,000 diesel trucks built before 1989 - an estimated 10 percent of the rigs that haul goods to and from the nation's busiest port complex.
The move is expected to remove 350 tons of harmful diesel emissions, which make up about 30 percent of the pollution generated by trucks each year.
"Today, the children of Los Angeles and the South Bay are breathing easier," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who touted the program as his "most significant environmental achievement" since taking office in 2005.
Although an estimated 5 percent to 10 percent of the trucks trying to enter port terminals were turned away Wednesday because they violated the new standards, officials said operations ran smoothly.
So far, nearly 600 trucking companies with more than 20,000 trucks have applied for the so-called concession contracts needed to access terminals at the Los Angeles port. The Port of Long Beach has received applications from more than 750 carriers with about 15,000 trucks.
The American Trucking Association had opposed the program, saying that the concession contract was an effort to control the trucking industry, which was deregulated in 1980.
The truck program is part of the Clean Air Action Plan designed to cut harmful diesel emissions by 45 percent by 2012. That's when all trucks will have to meet 2007 vehicle emissions standards.
"We are a long way from finished," said Martin Schlageter, advocacy director for the Coalition for Clean Air. "There were many naysayers who said Oct. 1 is too soon, but community members said that Oct. 1 should have come quicker."