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Trucks serving the ports are big polluters, too. A new plan aims to clean up the 16,500 diesel trucks that perform short-haul "drayage" work--moving containers from the ports to nearby warehouse and distribution centers. About 2,000 to 3,000 of the trucks are old energy-inefficient models with hundreds of thousands of miles on them. "The ports are where old trucks go to die," says Pettit, the NRDC attorney. Starting Oct. 1, the two ports will ban trucks built before 1989, the first year of diesel pollution control; by 2012, the ports will bar any trucks that don't meet the cleanest, 2007 diesel standards. To compensate, both ports will provide up to 80 percent of the purchase price of the clean trucks, and L.A. officials will pay an additional $5,000 for pre-1989 rigs. To raise money for the program, the ports would issue a $35 surcharge per 20-foot container trucked out of the port.

But the plan has its critics. "We support the clean-air component," says Curtis Whalen, executive director of the American Trucking Association's Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference, which recently filed a lawsuit to block the proposal. His group's key concern: that independent truck operators who couldn't afford the upgrades would either go out of business or be forced to work for a handful of trucking companies that dominate port traffic. A hearing is scheduled for late September, but Mayor Villaraigosa says the plan will move forward. "We're undeterred," he says. This week, giant trucking firms Swift Transportation and Knight Transportation both announced they plan to sign up for the program--and to use only clean trucks.

The ports are also investing in leading edge technology to cut down on idling diesels trucks, tugs and trains. The SCAQMD and the Port of L.A. helped fund an all-electric truck project from California startup Balqon that can haul a fully loaded 20-foot container at 40 miles an hour. Late this year, the first hybrid tugboat will begin nudging ships into port at Los Angeles, a diesel-electric hybrid called the Green Dolphin made by Foss Maritime. And Long Beach officials are seriously considering a magnetic levitation project to see if someday a short-haul maglev train could haul containers from the ports, say Jim Hankla, president of the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners.

Other ports are watching L.A. and Long Beach, but they are moving slowly. New York is looking at hybrid cargo handling equipment at two terminals. Seattle and Tacoma are working with biodiesel, and Oakland launched a truck program that so far has replaced 75 dirty trucks. But Cannon and others say that many ports are afraid additional regulations mean higher costs that will cause some shippers to flee to cheaper ports. Southern California port officials say they aren't worried about that. With tougher EPA rules coming on diesel trucks and locomotives, "A lot of other ports think they are going to be able to pick our pockets, but we think we're ahead of the game," says Long Beach's Hankla. According to Wallerstein, the SCAQMD director, the costs of the cleanup will only amount to a few pennies on a pair of tennis shoes and less than $1.50 on a plasma-screen television. "How can you say to a community that it's OK for you to suffer from high carcinogen levels so somebody gets a few bucks off a 40-inch TV?" he asks.

Editor's Note: On September 9th, a federal judge in California ruled against the American Trucking Association's suit and refused to halt the Los Angeles and Long Beach plan. Citing the health and environmental benefits of replacing the older, polluting trucks, District Judge Christina Snyder's ruling clears a major roadblock for the program, scheduled to start Oct. 1.

© 2008