Death Valley National Park’s superintendent to retire

As a career ranger for more than 30 years, James T. Reynolds has had assignments that included leading anti-alligator poaching patrols in Florida’s Everglades to training rangers at Lake Malawi National Park in Africa -- and being the current superintendent of Death Valley National Park.

Now, after stewarding North America’s hottest place for eight years, Reynolds, 62, who recently raised eyebrows as the only active superintendent to openly criticize Interior Department proposals to change national park management policies, has announced plans to retire early next year. A retirement party and send-off to Reynolds and his wife, Dot, are planned for January in Boulder City, Nev., according to Death Valley park spokesman Terry Baldino.

“We’re going to miss J.T. Reynolds,” said Mike Cipra, California desert program manager for the National Parks Conservation Assn. “When the Bush administration tried to rewrite park management policy for the national park service, he spoke out clearly and bravely.”

-- Louis Sahagun

Trucks arrive for ‘clean’ port program

Natural gas fuels the 132 big rigs that rumbled into service at the nation’s largest port complex last week as part of a landmark clean-truck program that aims to clear local skies by replacing the region’s fleet of 16,800 old dirty diesel trucks.

An additional 100 of the low-emission natural-gas trucks are earmarked for deployment to the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in the coming months.

The largest delivery of natural-gas trucks in the nation’s history was made by Daimler Trucks North America under a partnership involving the Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board, the South Coast Air Quality Management District and California Cartage Co.

“Each tractor will reduce the use of imported oil by 500 barrels per year,” Daimler Trucks President and Chief Executive Chris Patterson said in a statement. “At 132 Cal Cartage tractors plus 100 additional natural-gas trucks to be operated by the ports, that reduces our dependency on foreign oil by more than 116,000 barrels annually.”

Diesel pollution causes an estimated 4,500 premature deaths and 71,000 cases of asthma and lower-respiratory symptoms annually, according to state health officials. About half of Californians live within one mile of a diesel “hot spot,” where a high concentration of diesel-powered machinery elevates cancer risk.

Arrival of the clean rigs will help the ports meet stricter California emissions standards expected in 2010.

They also come after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon’s refusal to rule until 2009 on the Federal Maritime Commission’s challenge to the clean-truck program. By that time, President-elect Barack Obama may well have appointed new commissioners to the agency, which has the right to intervene when it believes unfair competitive restrictions or unduly expensive mandates have been placed on international commerce.

-- Louis Sahagun