“Community groups, environmentalists, harbor residents and workers continue to stand behind the comprehensive EPA award-winning program at the neighboring Los Angeles Port, where enforcing emission standards by holding trucking companies directly responsible for the purchase and maintenance of the clean truck fleets remains a priority.
“The Los Angeles Clean Truck Program continues to be the only long-term sustainable model worth fighting for. From our perspective, and economists agree, contract drivers are paid too little to acquire and properly maintain clean-technology trucks. Already the implementation of incomplete and weakened versions of clean truck programs like the program at the Port of Long Beach have given way to the very reality that created the cycle of poverty and pollution we have fought against. Individual workers are being forced to pay for these new trucks, putting working families in the difficult position of choosing between necessary truck maintenance and paying their bills at home.
“We will not stop fighting until we achieve a stable and sustainable port trucking market that is no longer subsidized by the lungs or livelihoods of drivers and port communities.”