Being Clean Is Getting Easier at the Ports
Picking up and dropping off cargo containers at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will soon get easier.
Starting Nov. 15, cargo hauled by clean trucks will no longer have to pre-pay a clean-truck fee and then be reimbursed for it.
The new, simplified process came after a number of meetings were held between officials at the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Los Angeles and the West Coast Marine Terminals Operators Association.
Under the new system, cargo owners using trucks that comply with 2007 emissions standards will no longer pre-pay the clean-truck fee. Only cargo owners using older, more polluting trucks will pre-pay the fee, which is $35 per 20-foot container and $70 per 40-foot container. Cargo moved by train is exempt from the fees.
Since the Clean Trucks Program was launched at the two ports on Oct. 1, 2008, 85 percent of all containers moved through the Port of Long Beach and 66 percent of containers moved through the Port of Los Angeles are done with clean trucks.
The goal of the program is to reduce by 2012 some 80 percent of the diesel emissions coming from cargo container–hauling trucks. The clean-truck fees are used to help companies purchase newer and cleaner trucks.—Deborah Belgum
