So maybe the judge didn't bring down the gavel, but the good news is the LA Clean Trucks Program is moving forward and environmentalists, port drivers and the community continue to lead 2-0 in the courtroom battle to protect our lungs and livelihoods! 

In Federal Court on Friday, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon did ask critical questions of – and challenged the lack of public review by – a Bush Administration agency that sued the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach over their landmark Clean Trucks Program. Judge Leon announced he would issue a ruling from the bench until 2009 as hoped by the Federal Maritime Commission, which has been trying to block a green-growth policy at the request of industry clean-air opponents. In response, the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports called upon Bush’s Federal Maritime Commission to drop the lawsuit particularly because the FMC lacks environmental or public health jurisdiction over the ports. 

“Diesel toxins kill people each and every week in our neighborhoods, and I have three small children who suffer from asthma,” said Oscar Tarelo, a Long Beach resident and port truck driver for over nine years. “These last-ditch efforts to delay the clean air we desperately need infuriate me, but I know the families who suffer from this pollution will eventually win.”

While no court to date has sided with the arguments that the Bush Administration or its industry lobbyist pals have made, local residents and members of the over 80 national, state and local organizations comprising the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports are wasting no time in appealing to California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and members of Congress representing pollution-affected regions surrounding the LA, Long Beach and Oakland ports.

Community members are urging their representatives to review the obstructionist actions of a little-known agency in Washington DC charged with reviewing ocean-bound commerce, and are calling on their elected leaders to help appoint new FMC commissioners that share President-Elect Barack Obama’s commitment to the environmentally and economically sound LA Clean Trucks Program.

Read the full press release here.