Not Resting on Clean Trucks Success; Port of L.A. Still ‘Growing Green'

In July of this year, our publication interviewed your counterpart at the Port of Long Beach, Robert Kanter, managing director of the port's environmental affairs. He spoke about both the uptick in traffic at the ports and the significant capital investments being made in Long Beach. How well is Los Angeles managing increased traffic through the port; and, what new investments in infrastructure are being made?

We are working with our terminals to allow them to develop and prosper as businesses while still implementing environmental controls. Our goal is to grow green. We are working with them to implement infrastructure that will allow ships to plug into Alternative Maritime Power (AMP) and to improve their terminal operations in a way that becomes environmentally productive and positive while working with them to allow them to prosper as businesses. It is a dual thing: grow green.

As an example, we just recently finished environmental documents with TraPac and China Shipping. Both of those documents represent a big change in the way the port operates. We required those companies to substantially reduce emissions and comply with the Clean Air Action Plan. The result has been that they'll have to reduce emissions for ships coming in and out of port through vessel speed reductions, control on-site emissions from cargo handling equipment, and reduce emissions from drayage trucks through use of alternative-fueled vehicles. They even have to pay attention to surface water runoff and water resources issues. We're contributing to the infrastructure for AMP development, and we're also helping them roll out alternative fuel drayage vehicles. The investment by the port has been substantial.

TraPac is going to have an on-dock rail yard; that is the only terminal that doesn't have an on-dock rail yard right now. On-dock rail is a way to reduce emissions from moving cargo out of our ports. It's much more efficient to use trains than trucks. There will always be a role for drayage trucks but it is more efficient to move containers by rail first and then by truck. It reduces emissions per TEU. That's part of what we want to do with the TraPac facility.

What are the drayage ground transportation and drayage technologies that have been employed, or will be employed, to electrify the Port of L.A.'s ground transportation support system?

We're looking at electric vehicles pilot programs. We're working on an electric yard truck to begin operation at terminals. We are looking at an electric drayage truck; we bought one through our Technology Advancement Program, and we've got another one here. We are looking at pilot programs for the use of electric and low-emissions vehicles. We have our Clean Truck Program. The Clean Truck Program has resulted in a phased ban of trucks and a transformation of the drayage fleet. Before we started the Clean Truck Program, the average age of a drayage truck operating in the Port of Los Angeles was between 1994 and 1995, between 13 and 14 years old. The program started on October 1, 2008. Now, all trucks prior to 1994 have been banned, and drayage trucks between 1994 and 2003 require retrofits. There are very few of those; most of those are not operating either. Our drayage fleet now is made up of either 2007-compliant trucks or 2004-2006 trucks. The average age is close to 2007. That substantially newer fleet results in lower emissions on average. 94 percent of cargo gate moves are by clean trucks.

Following a recent decision by U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder on the legality of requiring all drivers be employees, what is the status of the Clean Truck Program for the Port of Los Angeles?

The requirement to transfer the independent owner-operators to employees has been put on hold through an injunction. Just that part of our truck program has been put on hold. The rest of our requirements are now enforceable, which include a requirement for off-street parking, a requirement for maintenance plans to be submitted by licensed carriers, and the requirement for the trucking companies-the licensed motor carriers-to be responsible for the operations of vehicles in and out of our terminals. That's really important, because it is the trucking companies who are in the best position to make sure that these trucks are safely operated and are operated in a clean way. They're responsible for making sure that the drivers have security credentials, that trucks comply with the various safety and security requirements in the port, and that trucks are well-maintained and operating in accordance with the truck bans I described earlier.

The Port of L.A. was recently awarded $16 million from the Department of Transportation's National Infrastructure Investment program, known as TIGER II. Could you elaborate on that program and how it fits in with the port's infrastructure investment plans and what is presently being constructed?

This TIGER II grant is for our West Basin Railyard project, which will maximize the use of rail, reduce pollution, ease congestion, enhance safety, and create 2,000 construction jobs. The project is a link between the ports and the Alameda Corridor, which carries about 15 percent of waterborne containers entering or leaving the United States. With this project, which will cost a total of $125 million, we'll be reducing 2,300 daily truck trips by increased use of on-dock rail.

What is the value of these investments for the economy and for those who wish to pursue these projects as your partners? What is the nature of the economic impact of the port's investments?

These improvements will have a dramatic effect on the port's ability to operate more efficiently in the future, and they will also bring jobs to the area because of all of the infrastructure improvements and developments. The TraPac and China Shipping projects alone are creating more than 5,000 jobs right now. The Port of Los Angeles is the nation's busiest, and Long Beach is second. We are an economic powerhouse not only for the Southern California but the entire region. It's estimated that statewide, one in every 24 jobs-more than 250,000-are directly or indirectly related to the Port industry.

One of the best results from competition between the ports of L.A. and Long Beach is that each port can benchmark against the other. For example, is L.A.'s port as green as Long Beach's?

Most of the initiatives we've done have been with Long Beach. The Clean Air Action Plan, for instance, was developed in coordination with The Port of Long Beach. The Water Resources Action Plan is another good example. Both ports recently conducted a joint meeting and adopted a Clean Air Action Plan Update, building on the success of the current plan and adopting even more aggressive standards for the future. Those goals are San Pedro Bay port-wide. Both ports are green, and we're both doing our best to work together to make this entire region a better place to live.

Another joint effort is the Technology Advancement Program, which brings new technologies into the ports. That is part of the Clean Air Action Plan and a way for the ports to look for new technologies that have the potential to help reduce emissions. At the Port of L.A., we recently helped start an organization called PortTechLA, a technology incubator. The goal is to identify and support new technologies that have the opportunity to reduce emissions and improve the environment in the area.

What clean technologies are the ports most interested in procuring?

There's a wide range of technologies, including hybridization of heavy-duty engines and equipment, alternative fuels, and solar for buildings-we just put in a one megawatt project on the rooftop of the World Cruise Center. We're testing new cranes with hybrid engines that have substantially smaller diesel engines and work largely with electric power. We're testing new ways to control emissions-there's a new one that places a hood over the stack of a ship and collects emissions from the stack while it is sitting there. We're also looking at ways to improve truck operations for both yard trucks and drayage trucks with electric or hybrid-electric vehicles. There are alternative fuels for harborcraft and tugboats, hybridization, improved efficiency, and reduced emissions from cargo handling equipment. We're even looking at hybrid technology for tugboats. We have a tour boat that will be the first electric touring harbor craft of its size in the United States.

How interested is the port in using CNG and LNG as fuels to drive mobility?

Alternative fuels in general and CNG and LNG specifically for heavy-duty equipment are very important. Transforming our port equipment and fleet to alternative fuels is going to be one of the keys to reducing GHG emissions in the coming years. We have a special incentive program to encourage the use of LNG trucks, and we have nearly 1,000 LNG trucks operating in drayage. We also use alternative fuels in our harborcrafts and tugboats, and we're looking at ways to encourage the use of alternative fuels even in our ships, although at this point the ships are just operating with low-sulfur fuel. We have had some meetings to talk about encouraging ships to use LNG and alternative fuels.

There are a many global clean technology companies. If one or more wished to do business in areas the port has prioritized, how do your suggest they present their technology to you?

We have the Technology Advancement Program (TAP), as I mentioned earlier, as part of our Clean Air Action Plan. We also have PortTechLA, our technology incubator, so they can contact me at ccannon@portla.org and I can put them in touch with the appropriate staff. We want to continue to have a dialogue with industry about emissions reduction technology and about opportunities for doing more in the future. That's exactly the kind of thing that we'd like to encourage.

Is the greening of port procurements driven by the leadership of the San Pedro Bay ports?

The Port of Los Angeles, along with the Port of Long Beach, has been a worldwide leader in emissions reductions. Our Clean Air Action Plan was the first of its kind. It's the first time we ever set far-reaching goals for emissions reductions for trains, trucks, ships, cargo-handling equipment, and harborcraft. We have worked with the local agencies, like the ARB and the local air quality management district, that have followed our lead in these areas. We believe it's important that we, as the largest ports in the United States, take a leadership position and change the way people think about port operations and environmental issues. Our recent Clean Air Action Plan Update shows that we've been successful: Our emissions reductions between 2005 and 2009 showed a 50 percent reduction in particulate matter, 33 percent reduction in nitrogen oxide and over 50 percent reduction in sulfur oxide from our baseline.