Enjoy your 4th of July weekend, and be very glad you aren't a port truck driver getting ready to purchase a truck through the financing scheme cooked up by the Port of Long Beach.

On June 30 , the Finance and Support Services Committee of the Port of Long Beach heard from Daimler Truck Financial, the entity recently selected to distribute funds to independent truck drivers who would subsidize the Port's short-term approach to truck replacement. During the presentation, a Damiler representative indicated they believe that over 40% of POLB drivers will have "high difficulty meeting the payments" under the Long Beach Clean Trucks Program.

Hmmm... So out of every five port drivers who sign on to buy new trucks, two will have a hard time making payments? Just to put this in context, in the third quarter of 2007 the overall mortgage delinquency rate for the country was 4.7 percent. Translation: only a tiny fraction of borrowers have to default on loans to create a near-catastrophic upheaval that drains the market of liquidity and makes life very unpleasant for a lot of people.

Some more food for thought. More people are starting to recognize that writing loans for unfit borrowers is a breach of basic human rights. As the Press-Telegram reported yesterday, a group of Long Beach activists staged a protest in front of a major financial institution, claiming that people of color had been singled out for unsafe loans that were likely to default. It's hard not sympathize with these advocates for decency and common sense, but I'll try not to get too steamed. There'll be plenty to say about predatory financing soon enough.

Rest up over the long weekend. We'll have plenty to talk about next week when Long Beach City Council moves to take a closer look at its diluted Clean Trucks Program.

Kudos to the green growth mayor! Yesterday LA Mayor Villaraigosa put his John Hancock on the historic Clean Trucks Program that has garnered the support of dozens of public health, environmental, and community organizations, not to mention thousands of port truck drivers. One of those drivers attended the signing ceremony with his two sons, because, as he says, "I'm ready to drive a clean truck in LA. I'm ready for my kids to breathe healthy air." You can get more detail on the signing in the mayor's press release, which correctly highlights the strong leadership of Councilwoman Janice Hahn on this critically important issue.

Good news. The Tidelands and Harbor Committee of the Long Beach City Council recommended yesterday that the entire council hold a study session to examine the Clean Trucks Program rushed through by Long Beach Harbor Commissioners in February. The recommendation came following a series of comments by community stakeholders who challenged the scheme, asking Committee Chair Suja Lownethal, and members Bonnie Lowenthal and Gary DeLong to take a close hard look.

The American Lung Association’s Tamara Watkins and Elina Green of the Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma first urged the study session. Gisele Fong of Communities for Clean Ports, a Long Beach mother of two, remarked on the responsibility of elected leaders: “I would hope to see the entire City Council review this program and find ways to improve it.”

Other Long Beach residents and mothers, like Kristen Guzman and Rosa Batres, passionately raised concerns over their Port’s green-washing, and urged their elected leaders to help deliver a real cure for port truck pollution, pointing to the LA model.

Adrian Martinez of the Natural Resources Defense Council also asked for a full examination, noting that as written the program will force the city and its port to “get into the used-truck business.” Five Long Beach port truck drivers – all of them fathers – echoed the same warning they had delivered to the Harbor Commission for months: Underpaid independent drivers who have long ago paid off their old, ailing rigs and are being crushed by $5.20-a-gallon diesel simply cannot assume a $700 monthly truck payment, let alone a final balloon payment of up to $15,000. (This blogger sure couldn’t either. The phrase “subprime-loan crisis” comes to mind.)

Councilmember Tonia Reyes-Uranga agreed, pointing out in public comment that her council colleagues wield the necessary influence to ensure elected leaders – rather than appointed officials – review the Clean Trucks Program carefully and make sure it is designed to best serve the people of Long Beach.

Of course, Long Beach Port staff that addressed the committee strictly adhered to their talking points that “the only difference” between the two ports’ plans is the employee provision, the critical key to an environmentally sustainable program. No mention that Los Angeles will provide a $5,000 financial incentive for drivers to scrap their old trucks and truly address community parking concerns, whereas Long Beach will not. One staffer even boasted that not only did Long Beach not require trucking companies to employ their workers and assume full responsibility for clean-emissions vehicles, but their plan alone makes health care available for port drivers.

If you believe that, look here at what the Port of Long Beach consultant actually said (hint: think state-sponsored, taxpayer-funded safety net). On second thought, just send me an email. I've got a bridge I want to sell you.

Maybe the staff and commissioners who devised this industry-giveaway policy could sign up for the same kind of education the Harbor and Tidelands committee rightfully and responsibly recommended to the full Long Beach Council.

There’s Councilwoman Janice Hahn, surrounded by the American Lung Association’s Tamara Watkins, the Sierra Club’s Tom Politeo, NRDC’s Adrian Martinez, “diesel-death zone” mothers, and port truck drivers on the steps of City Hall June 17, when the LA City Council unanimously adopted the comprehensive, sustainable Clean Trucks Program that will reduce deadly emissions by 80 percent.

“For ever, I have been talking about two things – dirty trucks, dirty air and the plight of the independent truck driver...these people that we depend on to move America's goods were not making the kind of wages they could even live on, let alone keep up with the fuel costs, insurance and the maintenance of their trucks,” the LA Daily News reported.

So today another question for Long Beach officials, first asked by a resident in today’s Press-Telegram:

“Now that the federal government ruled that these pollution-reduction truck regulations won't hurt competition, what on earth are the people that run our city waiting for?”

Ms. Stoev, we hope your call for Long Beach leadership is heard, because you are absolutely right. You and your entire community do deserve a clean-up program that doesn't slap a green band-aid on the pollution problem, but actually cures it for good.

A trio of press accounts this morning set a few things straight, and should have all Southern Californians cheering along with environmentalists, public health advocates and port drivers:

• The Los Angeles Clean Trucks Program has the official stamp of approval from the City Council, with a nod to City Councilwoman Janice Hahn's leadership. The unanimous green light comes despite some of the more unscrupulous trucking companies intimidating port drivers eager to participate in the landmark program through bogus claims it would never be adopted by elected city leaders.

• The Federal Maritime Commission, the DC agency charged with reviewing commerce law, has granted an early blessing to the sustainable green-growth model. This is contrary to the American Trucking Association allegation that implementing the Los Angeles Clean Trucks Program will harm competition, and it should make the 31 California Members of Congress who sent a letter to the Feds, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama - all of whom have strongly endorsed the LA plan - very, very pleased.

And how does all this excitement and moving-forward business fare for Long Beach? As one Daily Breeze article pointed out:

The Port of Long Beach had tried to avoid a lawsuit by adopting a plan that allows both employee and independent owner-operator truckers to continue hauling goods to and from the port, as long as their vehicles meet the program's new emissions standards.

Despite that, the ATA also plans to file a lawsuit against the Port of Long Beach amid concerns that officials are trying to regulate the trucking industry by issuing concession permits to licensed motor carriers.

Less than one week after every majority-party Member of Congress across California sent a strongly-worded letter urging the Federal Maritime Commission to support the landmark Port of Los Angeles' Clean Trucks Program, officials in Washington found that competition will not be hampered by its initial implementation and granted expedited review of the historic clean-air policy. The FMC determines whether the plan conflicts with federal commerce law.

In a June 13 letter to Port and terminal operator counsel, the FMC Office of the Secretary noted the Commission's analysis "concluded that there was no basis at this time to determine [early implementation] is likely to result in an unreasonable increase in transportation costs or decrease in services," later adding it had no desire "to delay unnecessarily the implementation of [port] programs to address air quality issues."

Read the full CCSP press release here.

Here's the story from today’s Long Beach Press-Telegram. The American Trucking Association has confirmed it's preparing to file lawsuits against the Port of Long Beach’s Clean Trucks Program as well as against the sustainable, comprehensive plan passed by the Port of Los Angeles. Clike here to read CCSP's statement on the ATA's pronouncement.

Should America's ports be required to allow any trucking company that shows up at their gates entrance inside - no matter what? The American Trucking Association seems to think so. They may have spun their opposition to the San Pedro Ports' Clean Truck Programs as limited to responsible employer provisions, but it turns out the ATA appears to reject the Ports playing any role in restricting access to their property.

California Progress Report, the site that statewide Democrats and their staffs click on for their morning coffee, is running a two-day series by Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports Chair Patricia Castellanos and CCSP Oakland Director Doug Bloch on Los Angeles’ green-growth port model, aka

From Long Beach resident Martha Cota

I am a working mother of three sons and one daughter. I’ve often had to hold down as many as three jobs at a time to raise my children. I may not have much money, but living here by the port, I’ve come to learn one thing: It doesn’t matter if a person is wealthy or low-income. In Long Beach, we all breathe the same dirty air and we all suffer.

From Patricia Castellanos, Chair, CCSP

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently argued in a Sunday magazine cover story "I think that living, working, designing, manufacturing and projecting America in a green way can be the basis of a new unifying political movement for the 21st century."

For the first time ever, a city outside of California, (Pittsburg, PA) tops one of the most polluted lists in the American Lung Association’s State of the Air: 2008 report. Los Angeles saw improvements in air quality, dropping its year-round particle pollution levels by nearly one-third in the last decade.

Hearty press cheers today to the Sierra Club's Tom Politeo and Teamsters VP Chuck Mack Pacific Shipper magazine, which printed an article by titled, "LA program catapults port trucking into the green economic revolution." You'll need a subscription to access the article on line, but it's is well worth it, considering Mack and Politeo share decades of expertise closely watching the economic and environmental consequences of port trucking. Here's an excerpt:

For those who missed out on March 20th when the Port of Los Angeles unanimously approved its landmark Clean Trucks Program, check out this inspiring highlight video. Or if you were among the hundreds of port drivers, environmentalists, community members and public health advocates who literally flooded the waterfront to witness LA Harbor Commissioners take the high road to clean air, transport yourself back to that victorious moment.

Earlier, The Road began exploring the legal questions surrounding the Port of Los Angeles' sweeping policy to reduce deadly diesel truck emissions for the long haul...

Los Angeles Harbor Commissioners have reached a historic settlement with environmentalists, community and labor groups to mitigate pollution from necessary Port expansion projects. Here are some of the reasons The Road is celebrating:

As one Missouri driver who has stopped hauling freight in a nationwide action to call attention

Today we revisit the Long Beach port truck scheme. Commissioner Mike Walter repeatedly asked environmental skeptics if they understood the "benefits" for drivers. The Road will debunk the bogus health care "entitlement" another day, but for now we reveal one of those so-called bennies is actually a new, unfunded mandate on drivers.

In his reporting on the LA Harbor Commission unanimously adopting a strong Clean Trucks Program, Los Angeles Times journalist Louis Sahagun recounted a memorable moment "marked by sharp comments directed by Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn at Port of Long Beach Harbor Commission President Mario Cordero, who was a guest" at the historic proceedings:

"We don't take the fear of litigation as a reason not to do the right thing."

Just shy of a year after Dr. Geraldine Knatz declared it to Journal of Commerce, the Port she directs is ready to live up to those words.

Geraldine Knatz, the Executive Director of the Port of Los Angeles, spoke to South Bay residents in an op-ed entitled "Port Trucking System Needs an Overhaul" in Sunday's Daily Breeze about LA's plan to say goodbye to truck pollution (and a page right out of history) - and why harbor officials will enact the comprehensive, sustainable business model preferred by leading economists , (and modernity itself):

By Candice Kim of the Coalition for Clean Air

The AQMD has developed an interactive map that lets Southern California residents view how strongly toxic chemicals are concentrated in their neighborhoods, and how high an elevated cancer risk they face. Talk about too much information.

By David Pettit, Senior Attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council

A recent story in the District Weekly is yet another indication that in spite of the goods movement industry's misinformation campaign claiming environmentalists are impeding cleanup efforts at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the American Trucking Association (ATA) is providing us all a real lesson in Obstructionism 101.

“What I'm trying to say, sir, is listen to us,” Long Beach Port Driver Oscar Tarelo told Mayor Bob Foster at last night’s packed city council meeting. “This program that Long Beach is giving us is not gonna work because it’s too expensive for us."

"They're not going to send tennis shoes to Anaheim through Seattle," S. David Freeman dismissively told the Los Angeles Times, earning the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Commission President the Road's quote of the week.

Cheer: To the Long Beach Press-Telegram's Kristopher Hanson for nailing the newsworthiness of the ATA taking legal action against the weakened model Long Beach rushed through to appease this industry that still won't live with any clean-air standards, regardless of an employee proviso, in "Trucking Assoc. to fight L.B. Port plan."

Well, the Road doesn't actually have a crystal ball, but we did see into the future: The American Trucking Association is opposed to the Long Beach Clean Trucks scheme.

Have you seen those full-page ads, or read the Press-Telegram story about the political heat that Long Beach Mayor Foster is taking for overseeing what The Road is dubbing a Not-Clean Trucks Plan?

Oscar wanted to escape the diesel that permeated every aspect of his life, but soon discovered there was no way out.

In case you missed it, this morning's Long Beach Press-Telegram featured an ad with an angry Long Beach mother who wants to know why Mayor Bob Foster is siding with - and not standing up to - the big industry polluters. The Road is confused too, and thinks she has a right to know.

We certainly got the LA Times and the LB Press Telegram in a huff, didn't we? But for all the bluster in these editorials, they're filled with blatant internal contradictions, like the Long Beach scheme itself. 

While politics-as-usual corporate deal-making may still be the way to do business in Long Beach, make no mistake: The community will prevail and Long Beach Harbor Commissioners will not prevent the most dramatic-diesel emissions reduction program in LA history from being enacted in Southern California. Read the complete statement from CCSP chair Patricia Castellanos here.

Long Beach Harbor Commissioners have adopted a truck scheme opposed by environmentalists and public health groups who recognize that half-baked measures won't be enough to clean the air, or create good jobs.

The nearly 1 in 5 kids who have asthma around our ports know exactly why they’re sick, but they won’t get any relief if the Port of Long Beach moves forward with its reckless scheme to appease the giant industry shippers and trucking companies.

In a telling exercise with 5th graders at St. Lucy Elementary School in Long Beach, Ellina Green of the Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma (LBACA) asked the students to illustrate where they thought the pollution comes from in their own neighborhoods.

A Statement by CCSP Chair Patricia Castellanos

We are deeply disturbed that the Port of Long Beach has has rejected a comprehensive and sustainable solution supported by over 30 environmental, public health, community, clergy and labor organizations that will reduce diesel emissions by over 80 percent and fix our broken port trucking system -- and instead intends to ram through a staff-devised scheme that will fail to permanently reduce severe port truck pollution.

From Patricia Castellanos, Chair, CCSP

There's no shortage of half-baked ideas being floated by the profitable goods movement industry to get themselves off the hook from purchasing a new era of clean, low-emissions port trucks. Among them: Dole out grants to drivers, which would in effect make the LA and Long Beach Ports, and hence, taxpayers, the backers of the next generation of sub-prime loans.

As we’ve mentioned before, Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster has a favorite quote that he’s delivered to his hometown paper all the way up to the New York Times:

"We're not going to have kids in Long Beach contract asthma so someone in Kansas can get a cheaper television set."

A white paper is making its way around the waterfront, in which some Port staff argue against establishing the "Best Available Control Technology" requirement to meet overdue Clean Air Action Plan goals - that's a wonky way of saying they're opposed to using proven, tried-and-true methods as the real standard to reduce deadly diesel pollution.

With the latest plunge in U.S. employment, expect to hear port officials touting the potential for green growth initiatives to create new jobs. Pay particular attention to whether or not they talk about creating good jobs though, because port economics are directly linked to the success or failure of major components of the Clean Air Action Plan.

So yet another study, this one by MDs at Harvard Medical Center, shows the devastating health effects of long-term exposure to on-the-job diesel exhaust. The Harvard team's findings show professional truck drivers are 50% more likely to die of heart disease than the general population.

When twenty-year veteran port driver Miguel sees his tires cracked and balding, he pays twelve bucks to have grooves cut into the dangerously thin rubber because he can't afford $300 for a new tire. If Miguel is forced to turn his tread into time bombs, what could we expect if the LA and Long Beach Ports lay the financial burden of a new clean truck on his shoulders?

It's bad PR to be against clean air, so recently the industry has tried to convince the Ports the labor requirement is the only provision of the Clean Trucks Program that will draw a lawsuit and hold up other elements of the policy. [Note: LA and Long Beach voters would like their clean air to be served up with good jobs too.]

Reporter Chris Lawrence has produced a segment for CNN's American Morning about independent drivers forced by economic need to stay on the road long after safety, or common sense would allow. It seems the buzz continues to grow around the story first published in the LA times, about threats to public safety and public health...

From guest blogger Tom Politeo

I represent the Sierra Club and its Harbor Vision Task Force, which is working to transform our decaying urban core into livable, sustainable cities. Yesterday's Los Angeles Times front page exposé and KNBC Ch 4 report on the underground port economy underscore the need for the LA and Long Beach Ports to reverse the backwards business model...

Front runners for the Democratic presidential nomination Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have added their voices to the chorus of advocates demanding a historic new green growth model for California's Ports. According to an article in the Long Beach Press Telegram, the presidential hopefuls wrote letters urging mayors Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, Bob Foster of Long Beach, and Ron Dellums of Oakland to support the Clean Trucks Program...