Long Beach Dropping the Ball: Puts future environmental gains in doubt

The purpose of the Clean Trucks Program is simple, but not as simple as Mayor Foster and President Sramek would have us believe. In their Clean Air Action Plan both the Port of Long Beach and Los Angeles state that it is critical to “deal with the well-recognized problem of heavily polluting trucks driven by underpaid drivers” and directed their staffs to bring forward a plan to result in “adequately paid drivers.” As a Long Beach based environmental group and Long Beach residents, we cheered this recognition because it promised to take a broken, dirty, polluting trucking system and mold it into a model for the continued progression of the fleet towards a clean air low-carbon truck fleet.

Instead Long Beach has turned its back on sustainability and chosen to champion the band-aid approach. The 80% in reductions is laudable even if the air is still incredibly dirty; unfortunately, it is unlikely to be replicated as the majority of the new cleaner trucks are being bought with taxpayer subsidies - and paid for by drivers that make $10 an hour who, in addition to the payments, are responsible for fuel, insurance, taxes, and maintenance among other things. Despite the insistence of the Mayor Foster and President Sramek, the trucking industry hasn’t changed, it continues to make others responsible for cleaning up its own mess.

The Ports will soon release their plans to reduce global warming emissions while continuing to improve air quality, and trucks will have to be a major focus of that effort. Will the Port of Long Beach once again look to those who by its own admission are least at fault and least able to bear the expense - the taxpayer and the drivers – to finance the progression towards a truly clean truck fleet? We hope that it’s not that simple.