| LA, Long Beach Set to Ban More Dirty Trucks |
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| In The News | |
| Wednesday, 23 December 2009 13:45 | |
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Bill Mongelluzzo | The Journal of Commerce Online - News Story
Jan. 1 deadline looms for 1994-03 modelsLONG BEACH, Calif. -- The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will enter 2010 with more than 6,000 clean-diesel and alternative-fuel vehicles in the harbor trucking fleet as the industry works to comply with the ports’ clean-trucks mandates. In addition to the 6,000 clean trucks already in service, motor carriers have approximately 1,300 trucks on order and scheduled for delivery soon. The trucks meet or exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards for 2007-model clean-diesel vehicles. Jan. 1 is the next deadline in the ports’ clean-trucks programs. All pre-1994 trucks will be denied access to marine terminals. Trucks of model years 1994 to 2003 will be allowed to work in the harbor only if they have been retrofitted with diesel particulate filters. The clean-trucks programs were initiated on Oct. 1, 2008, when all pre-1989 trucks were retired. The Port of Long Beach estimates that some 8,000 old, polluting trucks have been banned from the harbor since then. As a result of the truck ban, the port estimates truck pollution in Los Angeles-Long Beach harbor has fallen 80 percent, a goal the ports had estimated would not be reached until 2012. “The clean-trucks program is nearly two years ahead of schedule in improving air quality,” said Robert Kanter, managing director of environmental affairs and planning at the Port of Long Beach. At the request of the California Air Resources Board, the ports have delayed full implementation of the Jan. 1 ban on pre-1994 trucks until April 30, 2010. Truckers who have a binding purchase order on a new vehicle or an approved application for grant fund assistance have been given an extra four months to take delivery of the vehicles. The extension will allow delivery of an additional 500 liquefied natural gas trucks now on order. CARB requested the Southern California ports grant the four-month delay to harmonize the truck replacement schedule in Los Angeles-Long Beach with the statewide plan. Under CARB’s plan, drayage companies serving ports and intermodal railyards were given an extension until April 30 for taking delivery of the new trucks.
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