Judge doesn’t halt ports’ clean-truck program
A federal court judge in Los Angeles on Monday tentatively denied a trucking association’s bid to block a landmark clean-truck program at the nation’s busiest port complex.
After a 40-minute hearing, U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder said she would probably allow the program to move forward, despite objections from truckers.
“The balance of hardships and the public interest tip decidedly in favor of denying the injunction,” she said in court.
Under the program, the adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach would upgrade their aging fleet of about 16,800 mostly dilapidated rigs that produce much of the diesel pollution in Southern California.
The American Trucking Assn., which represents 37,000 trucking companies nationwide, argued that the program would place an unconstitutional and unfair economic burden on port truckers.
The program is scheduled to begin Oct. 1 with a ban on pre-1989 trucks.
By 2012, only trucks that meet 2007 standards would be allowed to service the ports, which handle 40% of the nation’s imported goods.
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