Mayors Bloomberg and Booker Urge Congress to Update Old Law to Allow Ports Nationwide to Enact Clean Trucks Programs

Mayors Bloomberg and Booker Urge Congress to Update Old Law to Allow Ports
Nationwide to Enact Clean Trucks Programs

East Coast Mayors Join California Counterparts, Elected Leaders in Growing
Movement to Protect Successful LA Green-Growth Plan

NEW YORK, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 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.

"For too long we've been offered a false choice between economic growth and
environmental sustainability," said Mayor Bloomberg. "From our Million Trees
program to our Greener, Greater Buildings Plan, we have proven in New York
City that we can provide economic opportunities while advancing our
environmental goals. Today, I am calling on Congress to support legislation
that will empower ports to implement the LA Clean Truck Program, an innovative
initiative that will create good, green jobs and improve the quality of the
air that New Yorkers breathe."

Big-city mayors on both coasts have now pushed for changes to federal law to
remove any doubt that local officials have the legal authority to address the
market failures that have spiked public health and poverty statistics to
crisis proportions and have earned America's seaports the notorious reputation
as the place "where old trucks go to die."

Earlier this week Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums also expressed his willingness to
educate Congress on the need to amend the Federal Aviation Administration
Authorization Act, the arcane 20th century statute that the Beltway-based
American Trucking Association has argued in court preempts critical components
of the green-growth model developed under the leadership of Los Angeles Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa.

"Newark's residents and port workers disproportionately bear hazards from
pollution caused by outdated diesel trucks that transfer cargo shipments,"
said Mayor Booker. "I applaud the Port Authority efforts to enhance air
quality such as their program to replace over 600 of the oldest most polluting
trucks with newer models, but much more needs to be done to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions and improve air quality. I urge Congress to support changes in
federal legislation that would enhance the ability of our nation's ports to
effectuate policies to improve air quality and protect public health."

The LA Clean Truck program transfers the responsibility for reducing air
pollution from low-wage workers to companies that legitimately employ their
drivers and invest in and maintain clean, green trucks. In exchange, the firms
are awarded powerful financial incentives and access to the terminal gates. In
12 months, small and large companies alike have seen the economic advantages
of environmental stewardship, and have invested over $500 million in
low-emission fleets. Over 5,500 new clean-burning vehicles are on Southern
California's roads, moving nearly 70 percent of all cargo -- three years ahead
of schedule to meet emission-reduction targets.

But advocates who want these benefits replicated at ports nationwide warn that
the long-term sustainability of the plan is threatened and the new clean
trucks of today will become dirty again in a few years because the American
Trucking Association recently obtained a temporary injunction against key
provisions of the Clean Truck Program on appeal. Evidence shows this has
resulted in trucking companies shifting financial responsibility and
maintenance of the clean-technology fleet to individual contract drivers,
significantly decreasing their already low pay of $10 an hour to minimum wage
with no health insurance.

"I am proud to stand with the Mayors Bloomberg and Booker today to call on our
elected leaders in Washington to update the antiquated motor carrier act so we
can clean up this dirty, inefficient industry once and for all," said James P.
Hoffa, General President of the Teamsters, the nation's largest transportation
union. "Ports need the clear authority to implement 21st Century policies that
will protect workers and the environment so we can pave the way for future,
green growth that creates good jobs."

Amy Goldsmith, the state director of the New Jersey Environmental Federation,
agreed.

"We must have a federal framework that allows local port authorities to
implement market-based solutions to replicate LA's clean-air successes on both
coasts and create a level-playing field for responsible businesses ready to
compete and grow in a green economy."

Goldsmith's organization is part of a nationwide alliance of over 100
organizations known as the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports on the West Coast,
and the Coalition for Healthy Ports on the Eastern Seaboard. The direct link
between pollution and poverty at our ports has united groups as diverse as the
Natural Resources Defense Council, the Long Beach Alliance for Children with
Asthma, the Teamsters, the American Lung Association of California, the Church
Council of Greater Seattle, the Sierra Club, For a Better Bronx, and
GreenFaith.

In addition to the mayors in California, New York and New Jersey, the LA Clean
Truck Program has received public endorsements from then-Senator Barack Obama,
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, California Senators Barbara Boxer and
Dianne Feinstein, 31 House California Democrats; Representative Jerrold Nadler
(D-NJ); and Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ); and New Jersey Governor Jon
Corzine.

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and the Port of Oakland have also
joined the Port of Los Angeles to educate Congress about the tools they need
to meet and sustain federal clean-air standards.

The Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports is a partnership of environmental, public
health, community, labor and faith organizations that promote sustainable
economic development at West Coast ports. We are working to make the port
trucking system a less polluting, more competitive generator of good quality
jobs for harbor-area residents. The Coalition for Healthy Ports is the sister
alliance working to create cleaner, greener ports in New York and New Jersey.
We are over 100 organizations strong nationwide.

www.cleanandsafeports.org
www.oakland.cleanandsafeports.org
www.healthyports.org

SOURCE Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports

Paul Karr, +1-917-208-5155; or Coral Lopez, +1-310-956-5712, both for the
Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports