Port Plan Progress
This Editorial appears in the May 4 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
The most onerous and misguided portions of the plan by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to reshape the trucking industry there have been enjoined by a federal court, at least for now.
Still intact, however, are the portions of the plan that were properly aimed at restricting emissions from older trucks and those that introduce a container fee, which would provide revenue to help fleets acquire new trucks that operate more cleanly.
This is just what we envisioned when American Trucking Associations began its court fight against the unacceptable portions of the plan.
ATA has reaffirmed from the beginning its support of efforts to improve air quality. But the federation objected to attempts by local government and other parties to remake, by means of the port plan, the industry’s labor and operating policies.
Now the federal judge hearing the case has issued a temporary injunction against these improper aspects of the plan — but her decision came but only after a federal appeals court instructed her to revisit the case.
Among the unacceptable provisions was the edict to prevent owner-operators from moving containers to and from the Los Angeles side of the port complex. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are adjacent, and together they represent the largest container-freight operation in the United States.
After the ruling by the appeals court, Judge Christina Snyder found last week that a number of the plan’s provisions relate to “price, route or service of a motor carrier,” which is outside local control. She said those provisions — which don’t relate to motor carrier safety or port security — “place an undue burden on and against the right of plaintiff motor carriers to engage in interstate commerce.”
As ATA’s Curtis Whalen said after the ruling, “We have always argued that the environmental aspects of this are not impacted by our lawsuit — and indeed they are not. We’re on our way to stopping all of the things that are certainly most egregious until we can argue this on the merits.”
The judge set Dec. 15 for the start of a hearing on the ports’ proposal and ATA’s request for a permanent injunction against these same provisions.
We don’t expect much will change when the judge considers the permanent injunction, and are hopeful that the objectionable portions of this plan are history.
