L.A. port panel OKs $35 cargo fee

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a measure to impose a $35 fee on every cargo container entering or leaving the port by short-haul trucks beginning June 1, 2008.

The action follows a similar fee approved by the Long Beach Harbor Commission on Monday.

The nation’s two busiest ports aim to generate about $1.6 billion that will be charged to cargo owners and used to help replace the area’s 16,800 trucks with newer models and retrofits.

The cargo fee, along with a phased-in ban on old, dirty trucks that call at the ports, are key elements of the ports’ year-old Clean Air Action Plan, which is expected to cut harmful diesel emissions 45% by 2012.

-- Louis Sahagun