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Southern California ports work through the night.
Photo by Mario Tama.
The governor wants to tackle pollution and expand the state's capacity to accommodate the nation's growing hunger for imported consumer goods. As a result of supply chain problems caused by the Pandemic, California's ports have been thrust into the national spotlight.
The draft budget for the next fiscal year, which begins in July, proposes investing more than $2 billion in the state's congested ports. Most of the $875 million is earmarked for trucks. It also includes rail yard expansions meant to increase the flow of goods from ports to consumers.
The busiest port complex in the Western Hemisphere is located in Southern California and consists of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Americans shopping habits have long saddled neighborhoods near these ports with pollution from ships, trains, and trucks transporting everything from electronics to furniture. The COVID-19 epidemic has made things worse, causing toxic traffic jams as container ships piled up offshore and trucks struggled to keep up with the rush of imported goods.
There is no time to waste.
State and federal officials have announced initiatives to boost port capacity. Joe Biden's decision last October to keep ports open 24 hours a day can increase pollution if ports don't switch to zero-emission vehicles at the same time. 60,000 premature deaths have been tied to the emissions from container ships in a single year. Diesel-burning trucks drove a jump in US greenhouse gas emissions last year. Without a transition to cleaner transportation, ports will continue taking toll on nearby residents.
Teresa Bui, state climate policy director at the nonprofit Pacific Environment, said there is no time to waste in tackling the climate and environmental impacts that are happening at the ports. Public health and the frontline communities depend on it.
The goal of the budget is to get 1,000 zero-emission vehicles on the road. There is another $400 million for port electrification, but there are no details yet. $200 million for demonstration and pilot projects is included in the budget proposal. These are sectors that are more difficult to decarbonize. Climate and clean energy programs are part of the broader effort to address climate change in the budget.
California ports have some lofty environmental goals and have been called out for making slow progress on them. The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which together are the largest fixed source of pollution in Southern California, announced a plan to transition to a zero-emissions truck fleet by 2035. The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board wrote last November that they have done little since then to cut emissions. Freight pollution is a major threat to public health, air quality and the climate, and we cannot settle for half-measures and hope they make a difference.
The twin ports will impose a fee on shipping containers in April to raise $10 billion to hit their goal. If the budget is approved by June, they will get another injection of cash. The new fiscal year starts in July.
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