Seagoing Smog Machines

Angelenos probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the Port of Los Angeles unless they work there or live next door. Many are surprised to learn how much this hidden giant adds to the region’s and the nation’s economy: $220 billion in computers, toys, furniture and other goods pass through the Los Angeles and Long Beach port complex each year. It’s the biggest port in the country, topping even New York.

But as staff writer Gary Polakovic made clear in a story in Sunday’s Times, trade and jobs are not the port’s only influence on Southern California’s quality of life. The complex is also the region’s worst air polluter. The giant container ships that visit during a typical day release more smog-forming gases than 1 million cars, more than twice as much as all the power plants in the Los Angeles Basin. Never mind the strides California has made in making cars and energy plants run cleanly. If shipping remains unregulated, it will soon account for two-thirds of the county’s smog-forming gases.

The port’s economic and environmental effects on the region are, not surprisingly, interlocked. The shipping industry’s clout makes regulating emissions a challenge for the multitude of local, state and federal agencies responsible for overseeing the harbor and enforcing air quality standards. Shippers say reforms cost too much. And with the economy on hold, no official wants to risk imposing regulations and losing business to other ports. But the long-term costs to human health and the environment demand that someone rise to meet the challenge.

Sweden is pioneering economic incentives, charging reduced harbor fees to ships that use cleaner oil and urging the European Union to investigate the use of tradable emission permits. It is also pressing to strengthen an international agreement on reducing ship emissions since foreign-flagged ships--there or in Los Angeles--are not subject to local regulations. The agreement was adopted in 1997, but too many countries, including the United States, failed to ratify it.

Those who live next to the port scrape black dust off their cars. Others see a haze over their suburban valleys and inhale the invisible particles of unburned diesel fuel. As more people become aware that port pollution is hurting hard-fought efforts to clean the air, they’ll pressure lawmakers to do something about it. A policy of “no net increase” in emissions pushed by Los Angeles Mayor (and harbor-area resident) James K. Hahn is good but not enough. What’s urgently needed is a widespread commitment to start reducing the pollution.