Suit Seeks to Bar Mexican Trucks

A coalition of labor, environmental and trucking industry groups filed suit Wednesday in U.S. District Court to keep Mexican trucks off U.S. highways, claiming that thousands of older diesel trucks will worsen air pollution in areas plagued by smog.

The suit seeks to prevent the Bush administration from signing regulations Friday that would open the border to Mexico-based trucks within a few months. Such a move would “result in substantial increases in air pollution and a diminution in air quality in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, with attendant increased risks to human health,” according to the suit, filed in San Francisco by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Environmental Law Foundation, Public Citizen, the California Trucking Assn. and the California Labor Federation.

Attorneys for the Transportation Department, the primary defendant, said they were reviewing the complaint and had no comment. However, spokesman Dave Longo said he did not expect the lawsuit to derail the department’s plans. “We’re on schedule and still anticipate being able to open the border by this summer,” he said.

The suit is the latest salvo in a Teamsters’ campaign to restrict access promised to Mexican trucking firms by the North American Free Trade Agreement, which the union fears will cost U.S. jobs and put downward pressure on wages. Mexico’s leading truck drivers union also is opposed to an unrestricted border opening, claiming its members will struggle to compete against big U.S. trucking firms.

Large shippers and trucking lines on both sides of the border favor the opening, and the Mexican government has lobbied for prompt access.

The Teamsters earlier raised safety concerns, which eventually were addressed by Congress and the Bush administration. It now claims legitimate environmental concerns are being ignored.

“The real issue here is if we’re going to let the Mexican trucks on U.S. highways, then we have to make them meet the same standards,” said Teamsters spokesman Rob Black.

In March, when it issued regulations allowing cross-border trucking, the Transportation Department determined Mexico-based trucks “would have no environmental impact” on U.S. air pollution levels. President Bush is set to sign those regulations Friday. The lawsuit seeks a restraining order until environmental impacts are fully assessed.

“Diesel exhaust is a very strong carcinogen,” said Al Meyerhoff, one of the lead attorneys in the case.

Meyerhoff said Mexican trucks pollute more than U.S. rigs because of less-stringent air-quality standards in Mexico, for both engines and fuel, and because the trucks tend to be older.

The suit also claims the federal government is prevented by its Clean Air Act from taking action that increases air pollution in regions that are out of compliance with federal pollution standards, which includes much of Southern California and other border areas.

The lawsuit has drawn together some unlikely partners, including California’s key trucking industry group. “Basic survival can make for strange bedfellows,” said Stephanie Williams, vice president for legislative affairs for the California Trucking Assn., which has split from the national U.S. trucking association on this issue.

California truckers already are at a competitive disadvantage because, for environmental reasons, fuel prices are higher here than elsewhere in the United States. Mexico-based trucks could operate even more cheaply, she said.

“We want a level playing field for fuel and engines,” she said.

California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer filed a friend of the court brief, saying the Bush administration erred when it found that cross-border trucking would not increase air pollution in the state. Lockyer notes that the state could lose federal funds if it fails to meet Clean Air Act standards.

The Teamsters estimated the opening would draw about 30,000 Mexico-based trucks in the second half of 2002, with numbers climbing sharply after that. Mexico-based trucks now can cross into the U.S., but must remain within 25 miles of the border.