We are a broad alliance of environmentalists, labor and public health advocates, truck drivers, faith and community organizations. We see an undeniable link between poverty and pollution at the New York and New Jersey ports and support a cleaner, more efficient, 21st century business model for port trucking.
Ports Campaign Takes DC by Storm
The Coalition for Healthy Ports and our sister organization, the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, took Washington, DC by storm the first week of May! While there were many important events that took place during the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference, most of our work was centered on the Congressional hearing focused on port trucking. The hearing marks a critical turning point in the public conversation on this issue. During the course of the hearing members of Congress asked tough question and it became clear that port drivers are being forced to bear the costs of clean air, while the trucking industry is getting a free ride.
Underscoring the tone of the hearing are the media reports from that week:
Congressional Hearing on Clean Port Trucks
Jersey City Independent, May 4th, 2010
Ports of Contention
Roll Call, May 5th, 2010
Plan for Ports Program
La Opinion, May 6th, 2010
LA Port Official Pushed for Federal Fix to Clean Truck Program
E&E Daily, May 6th, 2010
Congress to Scrutinize Harbor Truck Leasing
Journal of Commerce, May 6th, 2010
Leasing Abuses at Ports Must be Addressed
Land Line Magazine, May 6th, 2010
CA Ports’ Truck Lease-to-Own Deal Merit Investigation
Transport Topics, May 11th, 2010
ACTION ALERT: Tell Congress to Protect the LA Clean Truck Program!
WRITE YOUR CONGRESSPERSON NOW!
Eighty-seven million Americans live and work in regions near ports that violate Federal air quality standards, where rates and risk of asthma, cancer and respiratory illnesses are rampant.
Congress is holding a hearing about the impact of port trucking on May 5th, and they need to hear from you now! Please join port truck drivers, environmental advocates and community residents across the country and ask Congress to support real clean truck programs at our ports.
NEW REPORT!
From Clean To Clunker: The Economics of Emissions Control
TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to support real clean truck programs at our ports
Less than a week before the trucking industry puts the U.S. EPA award-winning LA Clean Trucks Program on trial, a new report issued by several reputable "blue-green" organizations warns that Southern California trucking companies must resume financial responsibility for their fleet or the new engines will pollute. Port drivers who lack sufficient resources to properly maintain their company's clean trucks and are often forced to skimp on repairs stood alongside their environmental, community and labor advocates to present "From Clean to Clunker: The Economics of Emissions Control" to the Los Angeles Boards of Harbor Commissioners.
View the full report click here.
Marketplace Reports on Clean Truck Lawsuit
Trucking Industry Is Suing Port of Los Angeles
Marketplace- American Public Radio, Sarah Gardner
The trucking industry is suing the Port of Los Angeles over a program to clean up trucks. The case could affect cargo and trucking industries all over the U.S.
...We talked to one L.A. driver who gave only his last name. Lopez insists the burden of paying for cleaner trucks should rest on trucking companies, not drivers worried about their next paycheck.
LOPEZ: Right now it's bad.
Lopez says before the ATA's injunction he got hired as an employee driver making a salary more like $37,000 a year. The company he worked for bought new, clean trucks and paid for gas, insurance and upkeep. But after the injunction, the firm went back to hiring contractors and transferred the costs of those clean trucks onto them. Lopez says many have to now lease the new trucks under arrangements where they end up netting only a few hundred bucks a week.
LOPEZ: There's people sleeping in the trucks. They're not paying rent, they're basically starving. I've seen drivers sleeping in a day cab, in two seats, because they can't make it.
NY Times Article
Clearing the Air at American Ports
New York Times, By Steven Greenhouse
The Teamsters union and environmental activists have formed an unlikely and outspoken alliance aiming to clear the air in American ports, and perhaps bolster the Teamsters’ ranks in the process.
The labor-green alliance is getting under the trucking industry’s skin by asserting that short-haul trucking companies working in ports — and not the truck drivers, who are often considered independent contractors — should spend the billions needed to buy new, low-emission rigs that can cost $100,000 to $175,000 each.
The Teamsters union says seaport air is so dirty largely because port truck drivers earn too little to buy trucks that would belch out fewer diesel particulates, tiny particles that contribute to cancer and asthma. Working with environmentalists, the union helped persuade the Port of Los Angeles to adopt a far-reaching plan that bars old trucks from hauling cargo from the port and puts the burden of buying new vehicles on the trucking companies, not the drivers.
9th Circuit Ruling on LA Clean Truck Program Upholds Lower
Court Decision; A Victory in the Continued Fight to Protect the
Largest U.S. Port’s Green-Growth Model
“Today’s 9th Circuit Court decision is a victory for clean air advocates. The court’s refusal to extend a Virginia-based trucking lobby’s bid to completely shut down the life-saving emissions reduction plan in Southern California affirms that the Los Angeles Harbor Commission, City Council, and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa did the right thing in passing a comprehensive, sustainable Clean Truck Program.
Environmental Groups Blast Port of Seattle CEO Yoshitani for Attempts to Tank Congressional Clean Air Efforts
Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani, is taking on a large national coalition of environmental groups, labor unions, the mayors of New York, Los Angeles, and Oakland, and many Democratic leaders in a fight over proposed environmental legislation in Congress. Insiders say Yoshitani is asking the policy committee of the American Association of Port Authorities to formally oppose legislation that would empower ports to set environmental, safety, security and operational standards for port trucking companies doing business on their property.
"This is unconscionable," said Brady Montz, Chair of the Seattle Group of the Sierra Club, "For years, the Port of Seattle has claimed that our outdated federal laws limit their ability to protect Seattle's neighborhoods from polluting trucks; and now it turns out that Tay Yoshitani is working behind the scenes to prevent the Port from even having the option to enforce environmental standards for trucking companies." (Click here to read more.)
NOT JUST A CALIFORNIA PROBLEM
New Report Links Poor Industry Standards in Port Trucking to Public Health Crisis on Both Coasts
Diesel Pollution Claims More Lives Each Year Than New York and New Jersey Homicides Combined
A major new report by the Coalition for Healthy Ports finds mounting evidence that lax regulation in the national port trucking system has triggered a broad public health crisis similar to that in the California port communities of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland. The release of the report precedes an expected announcement from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey banning old trucks at the region’s ports.
View the Press Release here.
Click here to download the full PDF version of the report.
Media Coverage
New Report Says Port Trucking Causing Public Health Crisis
Jersey City Independent, December 9th, 2009
99.5 FM Evening News
WBAI/Pacifica Radio, December 9th, 2009
**For more information contact Paul Karr at 917-208-5155 or paul.karr@changetowin.org
NPR: Activists, Union Fight For Cleaner Trucks In Newark
Why the L.A. clean truck program is worth fighting for
by Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles
Just over a year ago, the Port of Los Angeles started the Clean Truck Program (CTP), a groundbreaking initiative designed to take the truck pollution issue head-on, once and for all. Prior to the implementation of the CTP, pollution generated by port-related sources (trucks, trains, ships, etc.) was such an issue that mounting health concerns and legal threats paralyzed port expansion efforts and threatened Southern California's future viability as the nation's largest cargo gateway.
click here to read the full article
Mayors Bloomberg and Booker Support the Clean Truck Program
- Ramon Colón, port truck driver and 33 year Newark resident, at press conference with Mayor Bloomberg, Mayor Booker and Teamsters President James Hoffa.
Against the backdrop of the East Coast’s largest trade complex, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Newark Mayor Cory Booker on Sunday jointly announced their support of the Port of Los Angeles’ Clean Truck Program, the nation’s most successful program ever for reducing toxic truck emissions. Their endorsement before dozens of local port drivers, community residents, environmental advocates and labor leaders included a call for Congress to ensure an obsolete law cannot be used to roll back LA’s clean-air progress or deter other ports from following suit.
Coalition for Healthy Ports Press Release
One Year Anniversary of the Clean Trucks Program
October 1st, 2009 marks the one year anniversary since the landmark Clean Truck Program was enacted at the Port of Los Angeles. To date this program has removed more than 2,000 dirty rigs from the road, put nearly 6,000 clean-burning trucks in service and reduced more than 30 tons of diesel particulate matter in the air Southern Californians breathe each year. This is equivalent to removing the particulate matter emissions of nearly 200,000 automobiles!
Unfortunately the American Trucking Association has challenged the Clean Truck Program in court, which risks its long-term success and creates legal doubt for other port cities seeking to enact similar life-saving efforts.
In celebration of the first anniversary of the LA Clean Truck Program, and in solidarity with more than 100 environmental, public health, community, labor and faith-based organizations in our national alliance, several partners in the Coalition for Healthy Ports released statements today calling on Congress to update federal law so local officials have the ability to clean the air and ensure green economic growth for our communities.
The Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports
Garden State Alliance for a New Economy
International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Latest Video
On October 18th, 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York and Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, NJ stood alongside Teamster president James P. Hoffa, port-adjacent community residents and port truck drivers to declare their support for the Clean Truck Program and call on Congress to amend federal law.
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