May 4, 2010

Eighty-seven million Americans live and work in regions in our country near ports that violate Federal air quality standards, and because of that, their rates of asthma, cancer and respiratory illnesses are widespread. The culprit is an unaccountable port trucking industry and their dirty diesel trucks. The port trucking industry sloughs off responsibility for fleet modernization and maintenance to misclassified contract drivers (also known as “owner-operators”) who eke by on meager wages with no benefits.

Enter the Clean Trucks program, an innovative, award-winning program supported by public officials, environmental groups, labor unions, civil rights groups, faith-based groups, and community organizations. This program puts the responsibility for purchasing and maintaining clean trucks on the trucking companies where it belongs, it ensures that drivers are properly classified as employees of those companies, and cleans up the pollution around the nation’s ports. The Port of Los Angeles implemented such a model in October 2008 and pollution levels dropped dramatically. However, the trucking industry, and its mouthpiece, the American Trucking Association, has legally challenged the landmark program and stalled its full implementation.

Change to Win applauds Chairmen DeFazio and Oberstar for holding today’s hearing on this important program, and we support Rep. Nadler’s efforts to update federal laws to preserve it. The hearing can be viewed online here.

Last week, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and 78 Members of Congress sent a letter to Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar and Ranking Member John Mica, urging them to modernize the U.S. Port Trucking System. His proposal would allow more of the nation’s ports to enact this innovative solution to clean up the environment, improve public health, and create thousands of green jobs. 113 environmental, business, community, labor and consumer advocacy organizations together representing more than 12 million Americans also sent a letter in support of protecting the green-growth model represented by the Clean Trucks program.