• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Statement from Ana Baptista, Director of Environmental Policy for the Ironbound Community Corporation, on the one-year anniversary of the Los Angeles Clean Truck Program

Posted on: Thursday, 1 October 2009, 09:00 CDT

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a statement by Ana Baptista, Director of Environmental Policy for the Ironbound Community Corporation:

"The Ironbound Community Corporation (ICC) is a forty-year-old organization that serves and supports families throughout the Ironbound, a community in Newark that is adjacent to the Ports of Newark and Elizabeth.

"We applaud the economic and environmental benefits brought to Southern California during the first year of the Clean Truck Program adopted by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the City Council of Los Angeles and its Board of Harbor Commissioners. This program has helped put over 5,000 clean trucks into service and banned 2,000 of the dirtiest trucks from the Port.

"The LA Clean Truck Program is not only important for California. Port-adjacent communities in New Jersey are heavily impacted by pollution from the Port. Thousands of trucks pass through the community we serve each week, releasing diesel emissions in amounts that are reflected in community residents' health. One out of four children in the neighborhood suffer from asthma, while the state average is 1 in 12.

"We believe the LA Clean Truck Program is a good model and one that should be implemented elsewhere in the country. We like the model because it hinges on new trucks, provided and maintained by well-capitalized trucking companies, rather than underpaid contract drivers. This is the only way to make fleet improvements long-term and sustainable and improve air quality in port-adjacent communities like the Ironbound.

"The LA Clean Truck Program is currently under attack by the American Trucking Association, which claims that it is preempted under the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA). This thirty-year-old federal statute needs to be updated and brought into the 21st century to better ensure the proper replacement and maintenance of clean port trucks, good green jobs and improved air quality. Failure to do so will mean a loss of economic opportunity and a health burden that future generations will have to bear.

"We call on Congress to step in and protect the Clean Truck Program, so that real and sustainable solutions to the problems of diesel pollution can be fully implemented as quickly as possible."

SOURCE Ironbound Community Corporation

Source: PR Newswire

More News in this Category