Letters to the editor
Re “Let’s get truckin’,” editorial, April 24
Your editorial is on the wrong side of the road.
Today, drivers and old trucks remain in the shadows, where sharecropper-style economics cuts corners on maintenance and safety measures. Environmentalists want an overhaul of this dysfunctional system to make sure that owners of trucks are responsible for their upkeep. Without a systemic fix, today’s new trucks will be tomorrow’s broken-down trucks.
A more sustainable system has been adopted by the Port of Los Angeles, to the dismay of the American Trucking Assn. Industry lawyers want an injunction that would allow the dirtiest of trucks back into service.
The ports already have the dirtiest air. Let’s let them have the cleanest trucks and a sustainable system.
Martin Schlageter
Los Angeles
The writer is campaign director for the Coalition for Clean Air.
::
Given the enormous challenges that our country faces, I wonder if The Times’ editorial board thinks George W. Bush is still our president.
Given what President Obama is trying to achieve for our country, the Los Angeles clean-trucks program is right on track. The deregulation mind-set has run its course and ruined our economy. Passing the buck to the little guy is so last administration.
It’s time for a change. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s bold effort to fix our polluting port by creating good trucking jobs is not only welcomed but sorely needed.
Robert Brandin
San Pedro
::
Good work pointing out the attempt to hijack the truck pollution program and make it a Teamster recruiting effort. Some other major deficiencies in the plan:
The program emphasizes scrapping good trucks and replacing them with new ones at more than $100,000 each. But old trucks could be retrofitted to meet new truck pollution standards for much less money.
What’s more, about half the trucks going to the port and half the trucks leaving the port are empty. This is because trucking companies are too small to coordinate their deliveries and pickups so that every truck goes to the port with a container and leaves with one as well. Better coordination, which would not be expensive, could result in drastic reductions in traffic and pollution.
The ports have taken a laudable objective -- reducing pollution -- and turned it into a union grab bag, reducing pollution less than they might at a much higher cost than necessary.
Marshall Kagan
San Diego
