Clean Truck Program Debut Cuts Pollution By Half At LA, Long Beach Ports

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - The start of a ban on polluting diesel trucks at two California seaports on Wednesday cut port-related air pollution by half overnight, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Adrian Martinez, project attorney with the southern California air program at the NRDC, said people living in ports communities in Los Angeles and Long Beach are literally breathing cleaner air as the implementation of the Clean Trucks Program disallowed more than 2,000 rigs built before 1989 from serving the ports.

The program also required truckers to meet stricter pollution standards and replace their rigs in five years with low-emission trucks.

The program affects 17,000 trucks that load and unload cargoes at the two ports. A California Air Resources Board study showed that these rigs produce more smog and soot than all six million cars in the region as well as cause 1,200 premature deaths annually.