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. The trucking industry is so anxious to kill the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach's Clean Trucks Program that it had its lawyers go whining to Washington about an agreement only tangentially related to the Program. In a hypocritical display of disregard for public health and welfare, the ATA asked the Federal Maritime Commission, an agency headquartered more than 2,600 miles from the "diesel death zone," to kill both ports efforts to clean up toxic truck pollution.

Perhaps the most unbelievable claim the ATA makes is that the Ports' Clean Trucks Programs are not necessary. Like those who continually deny the broad scientific evidence and consensus surrounding global warming, the ATA has placed its head in the sand and does not want to admit that its members are spewing pollution that has made the harbor area a toxic hotspot with intolerable levels of childhood asthma.

In another meritless claim, the ATA argues that the ports must effectively serve as an ATM for the trucking industry by distributing to the industry hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds and money collected from port customers, but without attaching any strings to help fix the mess that is port trucking. Well, to be blunt, NRDC disagrees and provided a response to the ATA's procedurally defunct and morally bankrupt request to the Federal Maritime Commission. NRDC is more than willing to stand up to the bullies in the goods movement industry who want place profits over public health.