Los Angeles, Long Beach Harbor Commissions to consider Clean Truck Fund Rate

Special joint board meeting to be held Monday, March 9 at Long Beach City Hall

The Harbor Commissions from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will convene a special joint meeting to consider a resolution to approve a proposed Clean Truck Fund Rate. The joint meeting will be held at 9 a.m. on Monday, March 9, in the Bob Foster Civic Chambers at Long Beach City Hall, 411 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach 90802.

It will be available on livestream at www.polb.com/webcast.

The Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) has established a goal of 100% zero-emissions trucks by 2035. A key component of the overall strategy to transition to a zero-emissions truck fleet is the establishment of a Clean Truck Fund Rate structure. A Clean Truck Fund Rate Economic Study was prepared by the Ports to examine the rate’s potential effect on cargo diversion and the local drayage industry and can be downloaded at this link.

Staff from both ports are recommending a Clean Truck Fund Rate of $10 per twenty-foot-equivalent unit (TEU) to be charged to the beneficial cargo owners for the movement of loaded containers by non-zero emission or low-nitrogen oxide (NOx) trucks. Eighty percent of containers moving through the ports are 40 feet in length. On average, $18 per container will be collected, which is anticipated to generate $90 million in the first year. The money collected from the Clean Truck Fund Rate each year will be used to incentivize the turnover of the existing drayage trucking fleet to the cleaner trucks.

If the resolution is approved, the following actions must occur before the ports begin collecting the rate. First, the California Air Resources Board must set its low-NOx engine emission standard, anticipated to occur this spring. Next, the ports must establish a mechanism to collect the rate at the gates, also anticipated to occur this spring. Once both of those actions occur, the ports will present a tariff amendment to their respective boards implementing the rate. The ports expect to begin collecting the rate later this year.

The ports held an initial workshop on the clean truck rate on Aug. 1, 2019. A second workshop on the Clean Truck Fund Rate was held on Dec. 18, 2019, after the release of the draft Economic Study. Additional discussion and comment on the rate occurred at the ports’ regular quarterly CAAP stakeholder meeting held on Jan. 15, 2020. Public comments were accepted on the Economic Study through Jan. 31.

Updated in 2017, the CAAP contains a comprehensive strategy to accelerate progress toward a zero-emissions future while protecting and strengthening the ports’ competitive position in the global economy. Since 2005, port-related air pollution emissions in San Pedro Bay have dropped 87% for diesel particulate matter, 58% for NOx and 97% for sulfur oxides. Targets for reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) from port-related sources were introduced as part of the 2017 CAAP Update. The document calls for the ports to reduce GHGs to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. The CAAP was originally approved in 2006.

The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach are the two largest ports in the nation, first and second respectively, and combined are the ninth-largest port complex in the world. The two ports handle nearly 40% of the nation’s total containerized import traffic and 25% of its total exports. Trade that flows through the San Pedro Bay ports complex generates more than 3 million jobs nationwide.