The Southern California ports said they are planning to update their Clean Air Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gasses, but the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association has expressed concern about how the plan will impact the competitiveness of the ports.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach said they are planning to update their Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) to reduce greenhouse gases by aggressively deploying zero and near-zero emission trucks and cargo-handling equipment, in addition to strengthening programs that reduce ship emissions.
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions, they said, will also help the ports further reduce pollutants such as diesel particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides.
The ports also plan to focus on freight infrastructure investment, innovation and technology to boost supply chain efficiency, comprehensive energy planning, more advocacy for stricter emissions standards, and government incentives to help pay for projects that advance testing and commercialization of zero and near-zero emission vehicles.
“The updated CAAP provides one of California’s first opportunities to implement the vision laid out in the State’s Sustainable Freight Action Plan,” the ports said.
The neighboring ports marked the 10th anniversary of the original CAAP, which was updated in 2010, at a joint meeting of their boards earlier this month.
They also unveiled a “CAAP 2017 Discussion Document,” which they said improves upon efforts to reduce emissions from all port-related sources: ships, trucks, trains, cargo-handling and smaller harbor craft, such as tugboats.
The discussion document prioritizes the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from port-related sources 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
That target aligns with California’s clean air goals and objectives in the state’s new Sustainable Freight Action Plan, the ports said.
Governor Jerry Brown signed an executive order last year directing the California State Transportation Agency, California Environmental Protection Agency, and Natural Resources Agency to develop a plan to establish clear targets to improve freight efficiency, transition to zero-emission technologies, and increase the competitiveness of California’s freight system. The plan was unveiled in July.
A three-month public review and comment period on the plan runs through Feb. 17, 2017.
The ports plan to incorporate the comments they receive and present the updated CAAP to their board at another joint harbor commission meeting.
Under the CAAP, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have reduced diesel particulate matter (DPM) emissions up to 85 percent, cut nitrogen oxides (NOx) in half, eliminated 97 percent of sulfur oxides (Sox), and lowered greenhouse gases (GHG) by an average of 12 percent, all while container volumes increased by 7 percent.
The ports said they “continue to exceed their 2023 targets for reducing DPM and SOx (77 percent and 93 percent respectively) and are closing in on their 2023 target of reducing NOx emissions 59 percent.”
The Port of Los Angeles is the largest port in the nation, with the Port of Long Beach coming in second. Combined, they are the ninth-largest port complex in the world. They handle approximately 40 percent of the nation’s total containerized import traffic and 25 percent of its total exports.
“Over the past ten years, the environmental accomplishments have been incredible,” Thomas Jelenić, a vice president at the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, told members of the port boards. Jelenić also said members of the shipping industry his group represents “support the transition to zero and near-zero technologies. It is only a question of how fast, at what cost, and how the burden will be shared?”
Jelenić added, “If there is any hope in paying for these improvements, it is through growth. Only through growth and re-capturing market share, will there be the resources necessary to make the investments envisioned by the CAAP. For this reason alone, the ports must increase their competitiveness.
“The updated CAAP points to California’s Sustainable Freight Action Plan in setting its goals. But the Sustainable Freight Action Plan identifies increased competitiveness as one its goals. Unfortunately, the CAAP does not do likewise.”
He asked the boards to analyze their draft plan for its impact on competitiveness and to “develop an action plan, integrated with the CAAP, to boost the competitiveness of this gateway.”
He said port statistics actually show a decline in cargo growth.
“From 2006, when the CAAP was adopted, to 2015, total throughput for the San Pedro Bay complex is actually down,” Jelenić said. “If we look at the decade preceding the adoption of the CAAP, we see the tremendous growth that made these two ports so successful. From 1996 to 2006, volumes through the San Pedro Bay Complex increased 174 percent. But since 2006, there has been no growth. Total throughput for San Pedro Bay is down 2.6 percent from 2006 to 2015.
“We might chalk this up to the Great Recession, which hit the country hard and was a blow to this industry,” he said. “But it isn’t just the Great Recession, this gateway has lost market share.
“Looking at the U.S. and Canada, this gateway captured 32.4 percent of all container throughput in 2006. In 2015, the San Pedro Bay Complex’s share of the U.S./Canada market has dropped to 28.5 percent. That’s nearly a 4 percent drop in market share,” he added. “That might not sound like much, but if we maintained the market share that we had in 2006 through today, we would have 2 million more TEUs moving through San Pedro Bay.
“We must ask: how many jobs do we not have because that 2 million TEU went somewhere else.”
Another group expressing concern about the plan was Justice for Port Drivers, a group affiliated with the Teamsters that is trying to help drayage drivers be recognized as employees and have the ability to unionize.
The group noted that trucks will be subject to increasingly strict environmental regulation. In 2018, port trucks that are 10 years or older will be subject to a fee (zero/near-zero emission trucks will be exempt from the fee), in 2020, trucks will be required to meet a federal 2010 engine emission standard, and in 2023, or when the State’s low-NOx (near-zero-emission) heavy-duty engine standard takes effect, new trucks registered in the ports’ drayage truck registry will have to meet that low NOx standard or better, and beginning in 2035, all trucks registered in the drayage truck registry will have to have zero emissions, no tailpipe emissions or the equivalent.
Speaking on behalf of Justice for Port Drivers, Port truck driver Eddie Rodriguez said individual drayage drivers should not be responsible for providing the trucks needed to meet the increasingly stringent standards the ports are planning.
“Every company – and their retail customers – must take responsibility for their equipment,” Rodriguez said.
He told the boards when the two ports passed their first Clean Truck Program, “I was forced to pay out of my own pocket for the new truck. Even though I worked hard and was considered to be a very ‘successful’ driver – and even though a subsidy was provided – it broke me. It broke my family, and it continues to break the backs of the thousands of misclassified drivers who haul cargo for America’s largest retailers on and off these docks. It’s wrong and it is also illegal for these companies to charge misclassified drivers for the equipment.”
Some of the changes the ports are recommending include:
• Phasing in clean engine standards
for port trucks, offering preferential terminal access to “green
trucks,” and transitioning to a zero emission drayage fleet by 2035;
• Reducing idling and transitioning to zero emission yard equipment by 2030;
•
Updating the port’s Vessel Speed Reduction Program, which provides
incentives in the form of reduced dockage fees in exchange for ships
lowering their speeds during their approach to the harbors;
• Expanding the use of state-approved alternative technologies to reduce at-berth emissions;
• Providing incentives for “clean technology” upgrades on ships;
• Encouraging carriers to deploy their cleanest vessels to the San Pedro Bay ports;
• Accelerating the deployment of cleaner harbor craft engines;
•
Expanding the use of on-dock rail by investing in improvements to the
port-wide rail network, with the long-term goal of moving 50 percent of
all inbound cargo leaving the ports by rail;
• Developing charging standards for electric cargo-handling equipment;
•
Creating a voluntary “green terminal” program to recognize terminal
operators achieving high levels of freight movement efficiency;
•
Continuing the exploration of short-haul rail, staging yards, truck
appointment systems, off-terminal queuing, intelligent transportation
systems and other strategies for enhancing efficiencies across the
supply chain;
• Developing infrastructure plans to support
terminal equipment electrification, alternative fuels and other energy
resource goals;
• And continuing the development and implementation of viable energy conservation, resiliency and management strategies.
The ports said a strategy in their CAAP whose importance has increased
over time is a Technology Advancement Program (TAP), created to accelerate
the development and demonstration of cutting-edge emissions reduction
technology. To date, the ports have invested $15 million in 35 TAP
projects.
Successes under the TAP include, “Emission
capture systems for ships at berth, hybrid-electric rubber tire gantry
cranes, and drayage trucks and yard tractors fueled by liquefied natural
gas, which are all now commercially available,” the ports said. “The investment to date
includes funding for zero and near-zero emission truck and yard tractor
demonstration projects already in progress.”
Ports of L.A./ Long Beach plan to update CAAP, with a focus on greenhouse gas reductions
