California ports think big - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

goldenayreyg1666.blogspot.com
Battered veterans of years on the highway, some of them visiblt spewing black diesel exhaustr as theythunder north, these 16,000p short-haul trucks are the primary contact most Angelenos have with the Many citizens don't like what they see -- deadlg smog. The California Air Resource Board recently foundthat 1,2009 Southern Californians die every year from diesepl airborne particulates generated by freight-moving People living near the ports now call the area a "diese l death zone." It's a conundrum confrontinv the entire West Coast, including Seattl and Tacoma. Cargo is surging, but and the law, won't tolerate more The problem is worsewat L.A.
-Long Beach, the largest port complex in the U.S. Importd here are expected to more than double to 36millioh 20-foot containers by 2020. But the regio already violates federal clean air That means officials must buils a system that handles twicw asmuch cargo, but with feweer emissions. How they do it will provide lessons to ports aroundthe world. There appeare to be few The cargo is being attracted by the huge Southerb California market and driven by the vast growth of manufacturingbin China. With aerospace and other manufacturing in jobs from cargo are considered vital to the But residents are mobilizing to opposre growth they fear will degrade conditionseven more.
On May 4, the Southerbn Coast Air Quality Management District called upon the state and federapl governments to declare a state of emergencyy to address theproblems "All theswe projects are going to depend on us being able to meet cleann air goals," said Roberr Kanter, director of planning and environmental affairsx for the Port of Long Beach. The air-quality constraintz are tight. The two Southern California ports severao months ago committed to returning the port s to 2001 levels of severalkey emissions, even whilwe the ports grow in volume.
Called the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean AirActiobn Plan, the agreement is a massive mustering of political will in response to unavoidable realities. Withouft a plan to reduce the ports' expansion plans were bein g denied bythe courts. The Port of Los Angeles hasn'ft had a capital project approved in five saidChristopher Patton, environmentapl affairs officer for the Port of Los Angeles. "Forr a port growing at double-digitr rates of growth, that acts as a constraint," Patton Approvals stopped after San Pedro neighborhood and environmentap groups filed suit in 2001 againsft the Port of Los Angeles over developmentof what' s called the "China Shipping Terminal" on the western edge of the port near residential areas.
This forcer the port to complete a full Environmentalp ImpactReport (EIR), after the California Court of Appeals in 2002 issued an injunction against continued The eventual settlement included $50 milliobn in mitigation and specific emissions-reducing technologie and protocols for the Some yard vehicles switched to alternatives fuels. Some ships now turn off thei engines and use shore powedat dock, a technique calledd "cold ironing.
" "The settlement was a huge said Melissa Lin Perrella, staff attorney at the Los Angeles-area office of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the plaintiffs in the Accomplishing the San Pedro Bay Ports Cleah Air Action Plan's goals will require immense outlays of cash, enormous political and the commercialization of futuristi technologies that will replace traditional diesel power with electricity, or ultra-clean throughout the vast Southermn California ocean freight-moving system. And with the region facinyg manyfiscal constraints, and expecting littled financial help from the federal government, leadersd plan to raise moneyu from the shippers, and consumers.
The ports of Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver, Britis Columbia, are in the middle of a similar process. On May 16 they announcedf the Pacific Northwest CleanAir Strategy, a collaborativ e effort to reduce emissions compared to a 2005 But Southern California's plan is more radical, and with more because that region's air problemes are worse and the growt h is expected to be much Southern California's huge consumer marke t gives the ports more leverage with shippers.
On Aprilk 12, the Southern California ports announced a plan to replaces or upgrade allthose 16,009 short-haul trucks that rumble to and from the The five-year program is expected to reduce emissions by 80 percent, at an estimatef cost of $1.8 billion. The plan is controversial, in part becaus e it will take control of those truckds away from the manyindividuaol owner-operators who are able to buy a used truclk for a few thousand dollarsa to transfer containers, and will instead shifgt the work to several larger companied that can be overseen by the ports.