One reason Southern California’s air has been so dirty recently is a big increase in diesel emissions from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Yet city officials who operate the nation’s busiest port complex are showing no urgency to protect people’s lungs from the pollution. We can’t keep waiting. Air quality regulators should forge ahead with rules to force the ports to act. Whether the agency will stick to its plan and start developing these rules is an open question because of the divided politics of its board, which is made up of 13 local politicians and other appointees across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, some of them steadfastly opposed to regulating ports and other magnets for freight pollution.
Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino, who for years has been Mayor Eric Garcetti’s appointee to the AQMD board and is running for mayor himself, has opposed the air district regulating the ports, even though his harbor-area constituents are among those hardest hit by elevated cancer risk, asthma rates and other health problems associated with their operations.
opinion Additionally, most trucks are idling as they wait to get to the Port pedestals. Implement strong violations for idling and enforce. For Pete’s sake rehirePolice
opinion Many truck drivers are driving vehicles that should have been pulled off the roads years ago, plumes of smoke are bellowing out their exhaust pipes as they make their way up the. New Gerald Bridge. Refund Police and start policing again.