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

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Battered veterans of yearx on the highway, some of them visiblgy spewing black diesel exhausty as theythunder north, these 16,000 short-haul trucks are the primary contact most Angelenos have with the Many citizens don't like what they see -- deadly The California Air Resources Board recently found that 1,20o Southern Californians die every year from diesel airborne particulates generated by freight-movingt equipment. People living near the ports now call the areaa "dieselo death zone." It's a conundrum confrontinvg the entire West Coast, including Seattle and Cargo is surging, but communities, and the law, won'rt tolerate more pollution. The problem is worse at L.A.
-Long the largest port complex inthe U.S. Imports here are expectexd to more than doublse to 36million 20-foot containers by 2020. But the region alreadty violates federal cleanair standards. That meanxs officials must build a system that handles twicre asmuch cargo, but with fewer emissions. How they do it will provider lessons to ports aroundthe world. Therre appear to be few alternatives. The cargo is beingt attracted by the huge Southern California market and driven by the vast growthb of manufacturingin China. With aerospacew and other manufacturingin decline, jobs from cargop are considered vital to the economy.
But residentsd are mobilizing to opposw growth they fear will degrade conditions even OnMay 4, the Southernn Coast Air Quality Management District called upon the statre and federal governments to declare a statd of emergency to address the problemd "All these projects are going to depend on us being able to meet clea air goals," said Robert Kanter, director of plannin g and environmental affairs for the Port of Long The air-quality constraints are The two Southern California ports several monthsa ago committed to returning the ports to 2001 levels of severap key emissions, even while the ports grow in volume.
Callef the San Pedro Bay Ports Clean AirActioj Plan, the agreement is a massive musteringf of political will in response to unavoidable Without a plan to reduce the ports' expansion plans were beingg denied by the courts. The Port of Los Angelexs hasn't had a capital project approved infive years, said Christophedr Patton, environmental affairs officer for the Port of Los "For a port growing at double-digit ratesz of growth, that acts as a Patton said.
Approvals stopped aftet San Pedro neighborhood and environmental groups filefd suit in 2001 against the Port of Los Angelews over developmentof what's called the "Chin Shipping Terminal" on the western edge of the port near residentialk areas. This forced the port to complete a full Environmental ImpacyReport (EIR), after the California Court of Appeals in 2002 issuecd an injunction against continued construction. The eventuapl settlement included $50 million in mitigation and specifi emissions-reducing technologies and protocols for the Some yard vehicles switched toalternative fuels.
Some ships now turn off thei r engines and use shore powerrat dock, a technique called "colfd ironing." "The settlement was a huge said Melissa Lin Perrella, staff attorne y at the Los Angeles-area office of the Natural Resourcees Defense Council (NRDC), one of the plaintiffs in the case. Accomplishingb the San Pedro Bay Portss Clean AirAction Plan's goals will requir e immense outlays of cash, enormous politicao will, and the commercialization of futuristic technologiez that will replace traditional diesel powerf with electricity, or ultra-clean throughout the vast Southern California ocean freight-movinv system.
And with the region facing manyfisca constraints, and expecting little financial help from the federapl government, leaders plan to rais e money from the shippers, and ultimately, The ports of Tacoma and Vancouver, British Columbia, are in the middle of a simila process. On May 16 they announced the Pacifivc Northwest CleanAir Strategy, a collaborative effort to reducee emissions compared to a 2005 But Southern California's plan is more and with more teeth, because that region's air problemss are worse and the growtn is expected to be much larger. Souther California's huge consumer market gives the ports more leveragedwith shippers.
On April 12, the Southern Californi a ports announced a plan to replace or upgrads allthose 16,000 short-haul trucks that rumble to and from the ports. The five-yeare program is expected to reduce emissions by80 percent, at an estimated cost of $1.8 The plan is controversial, in part because it will take controlo of those trucks away from the many individual owner-operators who are able to buy a used truck for a few thousand dollars to transfer containers, and will insteadc shift the work to several largetr companies that can be overseej by the ports.